Maximum Ride: Taking Chances
by burnoutbright
Summary: -"We’re going to live, Maximum,” he said so softly. I smiled and nodded. We were. We weren’t going to die. Not today, not anytime soon. And it was all thanks to Jeb. FINISHED!
1. I Wish

It was late. Yes, a complete stupidity thought considering that the sky was pitch black with little twinkling lights lighting up the sky. I took a swift check at the Flock. Nudge's eyes were half open and she was uttering something incoherent. Angel had a determined look on her face as if she were toughing it out (aw, my little soldier) and Iggy was looking quite annoyed with Gazzy sleepily flying into him every so often and having to carry Akila. Then I looked at Fang who was holding Total. He and Iggy kept switching off on the dog carrying. Nothing. I decided for him that he was tired and I signaled for everyone to descend into the patch of trees below us.

It had been that morning that we started our way away from my mom and Jeb and the new school. I hated leaving them abruptly but when the Voice calls and I don't answer it that only ends up in annoyance for me and the pain of hearing about it for the Flock. I decided it was probably a good idea for us to move on anyways before we started going to a new school. God, I couldn't handle that again.

We landed in the grass below us and I stretched my arms out a little before finding a good tree to sleep in. I climbed up to the second highest, thick branch and stretched my legs out in front of me, leaning my back against the trunk of the tree. I closed my arms and crossed my arms across my chest, about ready to fall asleep when I got the feeling of being watched. I remembered that I had forgotten to take a check of the area and I opened my eyes again. I squeaked a little and almost fell out of the tree. Fang sat right in front of me, his dark eyes staring intently at me. He quickly reached out and grabbed my arm before I fell to what would have been a very painful landing.

I sighed and looked at him. "Way to almost give me a heart attack."

He looked down to the ground and then back up at my face. "Sorry. I was just letting you know I'd be taking first watch. Everyone else is asleep. And I scanned the area. It all seems safe."

I felt a little hurt. He'd taken a scan? Wasn't that my job? I wasn't like being selfish or anything but I just didn't want anyone taking my leadership away from me. It was the only thing that kept my pride up to snuff and I wasn't looking forward to losing it. I sighed again and kinda glared at him not really meaning to show what I was thinking. He read it perfectly and held up his hands in defense.

"Sorry. You wanna take first watch? You look pretty tired. I think you should sleep."

I smiled at his concern but then felt the urge to take first watch just to show him I wasn't a panzy. I hated showing anyone my weaker side even if it was from being tired. And with what had been going on in Antarctica and Ari's death I couldn't stand losing it in front of Fang anymore. He was probably beginning to think that I couldn't handle this whole 'saving the world' gig of mine. And he was _almost_ right. I could do it—just not without them. But I was the indestructible Max. I couldn't let them know that.

"I'll take first watch," I said kind of demandingly. "I can't sleep anyway. Too much on my mind."

Fang raised an eyebrow and gave me a look like "yeah that's why you were just asleep". "Okay, suit yourself. I'll be right above you."

"Fine." I watched him fly up and I straitened up and took in a breath and watched the area. The truth was that I could pass out and not wake up for like one hundred years if I wanted to. But I was the leader. I had to have some motive here. And really I had absolutely nothing on my mind. It was too soggy from being tired. But I tried to keep it active so I wouldn't pass out. I knew if I did either we'd all wake up in dog crates smelling antiseptic or Fang would catch me and I'd never hear the end of it. I could also kiss my leadership behind as well as my pride.

I started to think about where we were headed next. I wasn't exactly sure; I just kinda followed my internal compass. I waited for some hint from the Voice of what our next mission was but nothing came up. I just hoped that wherever we ended up it would be far, far away from any ice, cold and whiteness. I remembered the leopard seal and the incident with Sue Ann. I couldn't believe that it would be just our luck that our enemy got attacked by an animal to reveal her secret identity. I wondered if Angel had summoned it. Hopefully we wouldn't have to do anything that involved anyone getting eaten by creatures from the underworld.

I leaned my head on the trunk and looked up at the sky. Something shot across the sky. It was a big streak of light, just as big as any of the other stars but it moved and it was gone in an instant. I tilted my head to the sky. Was it a sign? _It's a shooting star. You're supposed to wish on it._ The Voice. Sure, now it answers my curiosity. I was supposed to wish on it? I knew you were supposed to wish on the first star you saw but I never actually did it. It's like finding a folded chip and making a wish before crunching down on it. _Yeah right. You can't just wish on random objects and expect it to come true._ I thought back. I mean really. If every wish came true from these situations, could you imagine how screwed up the world would be? I mean, more screwed up than it is if that's even possible. _It's not going to hurt just to make a wish. Anything you want, Max._ Oh what the heck. Why not?

I closed my eyes tightly and pressed my lips together. What did I wish for? I wished for safety for the Flock. That no one would attack us anymore…well at least until we get rested. There. I wished. I opened my eyes and looked back up to the sky. Then I felt this weird tugging in my heart. I felt this longing to wish for more. I thought about it. I hadn't really wished for anything in a very long time. I mean, wishing wouldn't hurt anything, right? I wished that we'd be safe (again) and I wished that I could be back with my mom and Ella and just live there peacefully like they could. I wished that I didn't have this big beef with Itex to take care of. I wished that the kids could live happily without having to worry about being attacked at any moment. No kid should have to go through that. I wished…I wished that Ari were here. That's when I felt a tear slip down my cheek. I tried to think of other things but I couldn't get my mind off of it.

Images of Ari flashed through my brain. Times when we fought and times when we finally got along. And times before we first left the School oh so long ago before the poor little boy became an Eraser. That's when I totally lost it. I covered my mouth with my hands and balled. The next thing I knew I felt two strong arms around my quivering body, rubbing my back. I couldn't help it. I hated it. I felt so weak. Then I drew in a deep, shaky breath and wiped my eyes. I opened them and looked in front of me. It was black. Fang. I was staring at his shirt which was a little bit wet from tears. I felt him breathing slowly and heard his quite voice. Was he…singing?

I leaned back on the tree and looked up to his face. His lips whispered one more word that I couldn't seem to pull together before they closed. His eyes were still unreadable but somewhat comforting. And all because I wanted to wish upon a stupid shooting star.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

I remembered our position, him holding me, and shifted a little and he let go, seeming the tiniest bit hurt by the action.

"I'm fine."

He raised an eyebrow. "What made you cry?"

I don't know what it is but something about the word _cry_ sets me off and makes me feel like a total wuss. So I backfired.

"Nothing! Since when was it your job to be in everyone's faces? Maybe I just had a bad day, okay?" I felt a little bad for shutting my best friend out but this was turning into another one of those touchy-feely situations that I oh so hated. I needed space. He this time raised both eyebrows in recognition and sighed.

"I'm not gonna kiss you."

I sat there wide-eyed. I sure wasn't expecting that. That was just as shocking as him _actually kissing me_. And, again, I hated it. He always took me by surprise. I never had a guard around him. The feeling sucked. I narrowed my eyes at what he had said and stiffened.

"I never thought you were going to," I spat back.

"Oh I was just saying. I didn't want you to go off running again." There was annoyance and matter-of-fact in his voice. "Because we all know how you _hate_ being close to people."

I felt my face get red. I looked into his eyes. There was something way different that I'd never seen before. Complete hurt. Had I really done that to him? I thought I had known him but now I wasn't so sure. And at the same time as feeling bad for him I felt totally pissed off with what he had said.

"I don't hate getting close to people!" I knew that part was true. I really didn't hate it. I just didn't know if I should hate it or not. I was afraid of getting like, girly-boyish close to Fang because I didn't know what would happen. And if I go into a situation where I don't know the outcome I freak. I knew perfectly well what would happen if we didn't get like that. But then again I wasn't expecting this.

"Then what is it with you?!" the pure hurt in his voice startled me. He wasn't going to cry but I knew he wasn't in a joyful mood. His shout seemed to wake Iggy up because we heard him from the tree next to us.

"What's wrong? Is someone here?" he asked groggily, but totally alert.

I was about to answer when Fang beat me to it. "No, Iggy. No one's attacking. The PMS Queen is just being a royal pain in the ass."

And with a glare from Fang and a returned one from me, he jumped up into the air and flew away. I wished he would come back.

* * *

So there's the first chapter of my very first Maximum Ride story! R&R


	2. Like Valium Love

The whole ordeal was stupid. I hated getting close to people? I mean _really_. If I hated it so much then how come I was still with the Flock? Then how come I cried whenever I thought of Ari? How come I was so into helping anyone in the Flock when they got into trouble? If that's hate I wondered what love was. It was morning and we were all sitting around eating breakfast. Well make that all minus Fang. He wasn't back yet, and to tell you the truth I was getting a little worried. I stuffed the box of cereal I was eating out of back into the backpack and got up. I scoped out the sky. No sign of Fang. Nor was there any coming by foot. Where had he gone? I shoved my hands in my pockets and felt a tug on my sweatshirt.

"Max?" I looked over. Iggy stood next to me. He looked concerned. "What did you do to tick Fang off so much?"

I gaped. What had _I_ done? What the crap? I didn't do anything! "Nothing! How is this my fault? He's the one who-." I stopped myself before this turned into an awkward conversation. I didn't want to send two bird kids flying off. And by that I meant me.

Iggy put his hands up in defense. "Sorry. I was just wondering because of what Fang called you right before he took off." He chuckled slightly. "What was that? PMS Queen?" Iggy laughed again and I punched his arm. "Okay, okay, look. I didn't hear it all but I just asked because he seemed pretty ticked off at you last night. And just to let you know, and I can't believe I'm saying this but, seeing you two fight hurts. It hurts all of us. I mean, yeah, we all get into arguments but you two are the ones who usually have it all together. And when you fight and one of you flies off it kinda makes the rest of us wonder if this is all gonna fall apart like it did when Ari was with us and you split to Germany. We just get kinda worried, ya know?"

There was Ari again. I shook that part off. What Iggy had said hit hard. I had no idea that it would worry anyone. I mean, I didn't even know they knew we fought like this. And whenever we did it was because of the same situation…well…almost. It made me start to consider if being…_close_ was actually the best option. Not just for Fang but for the sake of the whole Flock. Just so that we wouldn't split again.

"We won't," I said without warning.

Iggy tilted his head to the side. "You won't what?"

"Break up again…he—he promised." I ran both hands through my hair on the top of my head and thought I'd walk it off. "I'll be back in a few minutes. If Fang comes back while I'm gone just…just tell him I'll be back later. That's all I want you to tell him."

"What else is there to say?" He said with a sigh like he meant there really wasn't anything else.

"That it kills me to do this to him." And with that I walked away leaving a probably very confused Iggy behind me. But I had it. I couldn't tell Iggy about this. I didn't want him involved. And honestly I was a little embarrassed to get him involved. That and I knew Fang would get all on my case about it.

--

I think I had been walking about an hour when I decided it would be a good idea to head back out to the rest of the Flock. I didn't want to go back in case Fang was there but I did want to go back to see that he was safe. Mixed feelings. I turned around despite the pull on my heart to keep going. I watched the ground as I walked. I had walked for maybe five minutes like that until two feet came into my vision and I looked up. I swear he's gonna kill me just showing up like that all the time.

I stepped back to catch my balance. Fang's hands were in his pockets and he looked absolutely awful. He had light rings under his eyes like he hadn't slept at all that night or any of this morning and his eyes looked a little red. He hadn't cried had he? 'Cause if he had I swear I'd kill myself when this entire world saving crap was over. I looked back down and didn't speak. It seemed our roles were switched.

"Iggy said you went for a walk. I kinda knew when I saw you weren't there."

I nodded keeping my gaze at the grass. I clenched and unclenched my hands in my jeans pockets and tilted back and forth between my toes and heels.

"About what happened," he started. It was weird because we never really talked about our fights. We just let them off after a while and pretended like they never happened. But I think we both reached our breaking points. And I waited for an apology. "You really took that too far."

My head shot up. _I_ took that too far? Who the heck did he think he was, saying that? He was the one who cut my deep by saying I hated getting close to people. And I was ready to forgive him for it. See what happens when I let my guard down?

"I _what_? Excuse me! I'm not the one who came down to check on me! I'm not the one who said that I hated getting close to people! If I remember right that was _you_! And for your information I really don't! I am close to people! I'm close to my mom and the flock and…and…" I hated bringing his name up all the time. "Ari."

I shoved passed Fang in an angry mess and headed back to camp. I was way beyond being mad at him at this point. Now I was over the top pissed (to keep it appropriate). I was as mad I was when I got that little surprise from Anne Walker only in a different sense. Because Fang hadn't betrayed me. Well, not in that sense. I felt a hand grip around my arm. I tried to get it lose but it was no use. He was too strong. Dang mutant genes.

"I didn't mean it like that. And you just helped me prove my point that you're way over looking."

I stopped to listen but I didn't turn to face him. I knew that if I did I'd punch the daylights out of him.

"Really? Oh I'm sorry. Then I'll let you explain the real reason you decided to rip my heart in half last night!" Sometimes I'm really shocked by the way I say things.

"You were really that angry?" he sounded regretful. I hated it because it made me feel how he sounded. "I didn't mean to, I really didn't. And I didn't mean getting close in that kind of way either. I meant it in a…you know love kind of way."

"Yeah and I love the Flock." I finally turned around to face him just in time to see him shake his head.

"I mean love. Not family. Like me kissing you kind of love. Like me hating fighting with you love. Like me not being able to stand being apart from you kind of love. You know, like…" he smirked "valium love."

I gulped and blushed. Why couldn't he drop that? I never meant it. But he did. Wait. He what? "You what?"

Fang walked passed me. "We should go back." Without even waiting for my reaction he kept going in the direction of our friends. I just stood there staring at him trying to figure this all out. He loved me? No way. I mean really _Fang_? I mean I knew he had a sensitive side after all he did kiss that girl back in Virginia and me…twice…but he's never said he'd loved anyone before. I thought he had said that to drop the situation and make his point but I was probably only considering it to push out the thought of Fang actually loving someone.

--

Fang had made it back only about a minute before I did. I looked to Iggy. He looked relieved. Fang had probably said that everything was okay just to cover it up. Or maybe he was okay. I knew I wasn't. I wasn't really hurt anymore but I was definitely confused. And that's not okay. Angel ran up and hugged me.

"We were all worried about you guys being mad," she said. "But we knew it was just a little argument, right?"

I patted her head and gave a fake smile, saying my famous words. "Everything's okay. It was just a…little argument." Can I get the award for Biggest Understatement of the Year? I looked up at Fang who looked away once I met his eyes. I think he knew I had no idea what was going on. "We should probably all get moving again. We still need to cover a lot of ground."

"Where are we going, Max?" Nudge asked. The million dollar question.

"Um…" Help, help, help. _Hawaii. _Whaaaatttt? My heart lightened a little. Warmth, sunshine, beaches, relaxation…Hawaii sounded nice. "Hawaii."

I looked over to see everyone's faces lighten up. Total came over and looked up at me.

"Really? We're going to Hawaii?"

I nodded. And I was pleased to see camp was clean. "Let's go."

--

We flew for an hour before Gazzy started complaining about how bad he needed to go to the bathroom. So without any complaining (in knowledge of his new… "talent") we stopped for a little break. It was nice really. A small town with all these little boutiques. If I wasn't on a mission I'd make us stay here for a few days. And we all knew Nudge was overwhelmed with it.

"There's so many shops!" she squealed in excitement. "Which one can we go in first?"

I smiled and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. I felt bad for the guy she may one day marry (if we make it that long—not trying to be depressing here). He would have to handle all the money and credit cards otherwise they'd be in debt up to their eyeballs.

"We can look around after Gazzy gets out of the bathroom."

I looked around. There weren't too many people around and the ones who were out didn't seem like any type of threat to any of us so I calmed down a little bit. It wasn't long before Gazzy came running down the street, a huge smile on his face.

"Oh my God guys!" He skidded to a halt in front of Fang and just about knocked him to the ground. "Just down the street!"

"What?" Fang asked.

"They have a fudge shop!"

I looked over to Fang. We nodded at the same time. I mean who could say no to fudge? Especially when you're a deprived bird child? So fudge it was. We entered the shop and looked around. It wasn't very big but it smelled like absolute _heaven_.

"Okay," I said starting my leadershipness again. "Everyone can pick out one piece of fudge."

I could hear "thank-you"s and "yes"s from the Flock. And not long after, we were all exiting the ever so amazing store and off to look at everything. Gazzy, Angel, Iggy and Nudge walked ahead pointing at different shops and saying which ones they wanted to go into. Gazzy and Iggy saw a shop with _Military_ written on it and they got excited. I prayed it didn't have real guns in it. When they tried to talk Angel and Nudge into going in there, they refused and pointed to the little beauty shop across the street. That started an argument.

"Okay, okay," I said trying to calm everyone down. "Gazzy and Iggy, you two can go into the military shop and Nudge and Angel you can go into the beauty shop. Meet back out here in ten minutes and no walking out with anything."

I gave a look to Angel but she only shrugged and gave me one of her innocent looks. I sighed as the four of them ran off excitedly. That left me and Fang standing on the sidewalk. Akila and Total lied down on the pavement beside us. I leaned against the brick wall of one of the stores and stared up at the sky. I wondered if there were any shooting clouds you could wish on. Because if there were, I'd wish that this wasn't so awkward.

"At least it's warm out." His voice startled me. He has a way of doing that.

I looked at him but didn't meet his eyes. "Mmhm." I started making clicking noises with my tongue.

I think about five minutes went by of us just standing there in complete weirdness.

"You know you've looked kinda down since we left." _Huh. No duh._ I thought. "The others are gonna start thinking something's wrong."

"Yeah and I'd hate to lie to them and say something was," I said sarcastically. "Then I'd let my guard down or something."

Fang sighed. "Look I don't want them worrying. And I don't want them on our cases. So if we just forget about it-."

"Forget about it?" I interrupted, raising my voice a little. "Yeah, okay. I'll just do that!"

I started to walk off towards the shops but Fang stood in front of me.

"What's the big deal? It's not like we'd talk about it anyway."

He was right about that. "And why can't we? Why can't we just talk about something instead of letting it sit around and kill us?!"

"Because. Last time I tried to I got chewed out. Remember?"

Again, right. But we didn't really fight…did we? "So I made one mistake okay? Forgive me for being human!" Ha ha, yeah right. "Forgive me for being confused!" Fang cleared his throat and from the corner of my eye I could see the rest of our Flock coming towards us, thankfully empty handed. "Oh who cares, Fang? I'm sick of it!" The four stopped about thirty feet away. "I'm sick of pretending like nothing ever happened! I'm sick of us always fighting about this situation because you keep aiming!" Fang looked a little taken back by my shouting. I kept at it.

"I'm sick of you getting mad at me because I'm confused about all of it! So you do what you do and I back off? You never even give me time to think you just plunge right in!" I wondered what the others were thinking. Not if they were mad about us fighting but what they thought we were fighting about. They had no idea by my understanding. "And I'm confused by what you said!"

"Max, stop. We can talk about it later, okay?"

I glared at him. "Why did you say it, Fang?"

"About what?" I heard Gazzy ask. "Did you make fun of her or something?"

"If you want to forget about it afterwards don't say it!"

Again I saw out of the corner of my eye my Flock. Angel kind of widened her eyes and backed behind Iggy. I had scared her with my yelling. I think I had scared them all. And there was Fang standing there taking it, trying to hide our argument from all of our friends. How long did he think I'd last? I let out a screaming sigh of frustration and walked quickly in the opposite direction of the others. I heard Fang yell after me in something I thought I'd never in a lifetime hear him say.

"You're not the only one who's hurt! You ever think about that, Max!?"

I held my breath and ran. I had to get out of here. This was so stupid. I made my way to what I'm pretty sure was a park and leaned against a tree, sliding my back down it until I sat and wrapped my arms around my knees and lied my head down onto them. I thought about what my mom had said to me what seemed like forever ago. _There are other kinds of pain besides physical._ I wished she were here to comfort me. I felt like a baby, getting upset about this but I've kept all of it inside for a long time and Fang was trying to keep it even more bottled up. I wondered what the heck was wrong with him. Then I remembered what Iggy had told me about the Flock hating us fighting. He was protecting them. That just made me feel like an idiot. And a jerk. And what about what Fang said? Was he talking about the Flock being hurt? 'Cause I kinda figured that one out.

It wasn't long after I left that I felt a tap on my foot from someone kicking me. I looked up. He knew me well. Too well. Fang sat down in front of me and I leaned back against the tree. This was an all too familiar scene. Like the one that got me into this mess.

"I didn't mean to push you," he said. "I just didn't want to fight in front of the others."

"Iggy talked to you, too?"

Fang shook his head. Was he just a kinder person than I was or what? "Angel."

If anything could break me it was _that. _I can take Iggy telling me this kind of thing…kind of. But if Angel, sweet Angel had told me I would have completely lost it. I felt bad for Fang.

"After you left she started crying and ran over to me and hugged me. She said that you scared her and she knows you didn't mean to but seeing us fight does that to her. I felt like killing myself."

I groaned throwing my head back down. "I should have listened and waited."

"No. I should have. I'm sorry for always abruptly…kissing…you and I'm sorry for not talking to you about it. I just thought that since…you know." I raised my head and he looked me in the eye. I knew what he was talking about.

"The time at my mom's…with the valium?"

Fang chuckled. "No. I just thought that was kind of cute." Had he just said cute? "I meant the time at the beach. After Ari hurt me you…"

His voice faded before he got to the last words. I had almost forgotten about that. And he was right…again. I had kissed him, hadn't I? Then after he had kissed that girl in Virginia I got all mad and asked if I wasn't girly enough for him. Then when he kissed me I ran. Talk about mixed signals.

Again my head was down and I muffled out a sentence. "I'm an idiot."

Fang squeezed my foot. "You're confused. Like you said. And I didn't give you space and I'm sorry. And I don't mean to interfere. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but why are you confused?"

I thought about explaining it to him. If I did I'd get this all off of my back and get it out of my way and then maybe not be confused anymore. But then Fang would know and it would be slightly more awkward. If that was at all possible. But then if I didn't tell him, I'd save my embarrassment but I'd still be keeping it from him and this situation wouldn't ever end. I decided to tell him before I changed my mind again.

"Because I don't know what would happen. Because if I didn't run off then I wouldn't know what would become of us if we stayed _close_. And I knew…I thought I knew how things would be if I just let it off and not have it. If I had seen this coming I think I would have gone the other way. I just feel blind in all of it."

"Does that mean you want to go the other way now?"

He sounded like he chose those words carefully, trying not to push me too far. I respected that. And I was grateful we weren't yelling anymore. Then I again remembered what he had said before.

"What did you mean when I left? About me not being the only one hurt?"

Fang's gaze stayed on mine but he sighed like he was nervous. "I think it's my fault, really. After I kiss you, you run away and it kind of…stings a little."

I think that was the most Fang had ever admitted about being hurt. Because God forbid Mr. Macho Man show his softer side. I think something went wrong when they were creating us like they took out the sense of emotion nerve or something.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. I just got scared. I'm…" _Swallow your pride_. I heard before I finished. "I'm sorry." He nodded then stared at me like he was waiting for me to say something else. Oh yeah. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know if I wanted it the other way or not. I liked having everything the way it was—when we weren't fighting that is. I wondered if me saying okay would make all of the fighting end. But I also wondered how it would affect the rest of the Flock. None of us had ever thought of the idea of being romantically involved with another in the Flock. The idea may seem very odd or gross to the others. And what if it didn't turn out well? Fang took my hand breaking me out of thought.

"I promised we'd never break up again. And I meant it. I'll never leave you again. It was too stressful to be away. And I got bored. There was no one to argue with." We both laughed a little. "It'll be okay. And if you say no, it'll be okay too. At least we talked about it."

He was right there. We did talk about it for once and no one had left yet. Bonus. He promised. And it could get better. Maybe I'll take the chance. Maybe I'll go for it. _Go for it_. I heard the Voice say. And that's all I needed. I smiled again and leaned closer. I wondered if he injected valium in my breakfast late last night because I was beginning to feel a little out of it. His smile was the last thing I saw before my eyes closed and my world faded.


	3. A Night to Remember

**Okay so this chapter is...kinda long. Yeah I got carried away. You may tend to see that in the next chapter, also. And to answer a question in a reply, no Max didn't pass out. When she closed her eyes the last thing she saw was Fang's smile and they kissed and she went off to la-la land...or something like that. Also-I don't own Maximum Ride. If I did, Fang/Max would be together and Ari would be alive. I love that kid...**

* * *

It was about a half hour later by the time we returned to the rest of the Flock. I thought about all of the time we had lost because of mine and Fang's little dispute. Iggy raised his eyebrows, silently asking if we were okay. I nodded before realizing he couldn't take that signal.

"They're happy again," Gazzy said.

I guess you could say that. I told everyone it was time to go, and with a protest from Nudge and a sigh of relief from Total, we took off into the midday sky. I hoped the rest of the day would go smoothly. When we stopped for the night, it was dark out again. I had the flock settle down before I went off into the town about a fifteen minute speed flight away to call my mom. After all, mothers worry when they don't know where their children are. I heard her phone ring as I fiddled with the cord on the payphone.

"Max? Is that you?" her voice sounded partly worried and partly relieved.

"Yeah, Mom. It's me. We're somewhere in West Virginia…I think."

"Okay," she sighed in relief. "Everyone's okay?"

"Yep," I said almost too happily.

"What is it?" Crud. She picked up on it. "You sound excited about something." I hated mother radar.

"It's nothing…I mean it is but it's not. I kind of…well you see…" Why was this so hard for me? Yeah sure the rest of the Flock didn't know but that was because—I don't know why really. Was it really that embarrassing to admit?

"Is it Fang?"

"Do you have like special mind reading powers or something?" I thought of Angel. I wondered if she picked up on something. I've been thinking about it all day. I heard my mom laugh and I heard a gasp of what sounded like a very excited half sister with a certain name of Ella.

"You have a boyfriend!?" I thought I my ear was going to explode. Ella screams louder than Nudge. Well…almost.

"Mom?"

"Sorry. I've got you on speakerphone."

"Well it's only you and Ella so I guess that's okay." I heard someone clear their throat. And let me tell you, it didn't sound womanly. That could only leave me with one guess. "Jeb's there too?" I wined. I heard a laugh from Jeb. I wanted to deck him. Or rip him apart limb by limb but I had different reasons for that. Reasons of treason…

"I'm sorry, honey. Look, I'm glad to hear you guys are safe. Is there anything you need?"

You mean other than the last minute of my life back? "No. Hey, I've gotta go. I can't leave Fang on night watch forever. Love you, Mom. Love you, Ella." I conveniently left Jeb out of my goodbye fest. "Bye."

I heard three goodbyes before I hung up the phone and headed back for camp. Great, now Mom, Ella _and _Jeb knew about mine and Fang's…closeness. I wouldn't really call it boyfriend-girlfriend. But that's just me being all ungirlified. When I got back I saw everyone sleeping safe and sound. I flew up to the branch that Fang was in and sat in front of him.

"How's Dr. Martinez?" he asked.

"She's good. So is Ella. And Jeb. How's everything here?" Fang gave me the thumbs up sign before smiling a little. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"No really. What?" I looked up, attempting to take a peek at my hair or something. Did I splatter a bug across my face while I was flying or something? Fang scooted closer to me and smiled bigger.

"They're asleep."

My heart fluttered a little. "Yeah?" I saw the space between us getting rapidly smaller as Fang continued to lean in. Eventually his lips were only centimeters away from mine. His eyes were closed and he whispered.

"Yep." That's all he said before closing the gap and kissing me. I felt my breath escape my chest as I willingly let him kiss me. It was a good feeling. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt my brain turn to mush. I was still trying to get used to the fact that I was okay with all of this happening. At first I almost wanted to freak out but then I remembered the events of the day and realized that probably wouldn't be the best option.

I was beginning to get dizzy and started to breathe through my nose when I heard laughter. I quickly broke off from the kiss and looked around. Erasers? Some other weird form of a human (for the lack of better words). The laugh was almost evil sounding and I was ready to kick butt until I looked up to see Iggy overhead. I wondered why he was laughing. He couldn't see.

"What?" I asked looking up at him.

"Sounds like you guys made up. Not _everyone_ is asleep."

_Oh smooth, Fang_, I thought. Not only did Jeb my mom and Ella know but now so did Iggy. I could hang up on my family still in D.C. but I couldn't get out of the path of Iggy and I knew we'd never hear the end of this one. He had caught us, of all things, kissing and he couldn't even see. I was grateful for that at least. Iggy came down to sit on the branch that jetted out right next to us. I felt violated.

"So what _were_ you guys fighting about?" He asked, now suddenly intrigued in our personal business. Gee, I wonder why?

I shook my head. "Nothing. It's late and I'm tired. Goodnight."

I was about to go to my own branch when Iggy grabbed my arm. "Aw, come on. It couldn't have been that bad. I mean, no one's dead…_obviously_."

"Goodnight, Iggy."

I hopped down from the low branch and chose one a ways up on the other side of the tree. If Iggy said anything to anyone else I'd murder him. They didn't need to know. Neither did he but he found out. I just hoped it would stay a secret between the three of us. For now, anyway.

--

The next morning was kind of embarrassing. While we cleaned up camp and ate breakfast and all that good stuff, Iggy kept looking in mine and Fang's direction and laughing.

"What's so funny?" Nudge asked, anxious to get in on the excitement. I readied my attack mode in case he squealed. But he said nothing. He just shook his head and kept on laughing. I looked at Fang regretfully. I was already starting to dislike my choice. He squeezed my shoulder and gave me a smile.

It wasn't until we were about two or three hours into our trip that day did anyone need a break. Nudge and Gazzy were getting hungry. I heard my stomach growl. I guess I was too. So we took a break for lunch. We got hamburgers and ate them at a park across the street from the Burger King. Iggy sat on one side with Gazzy and Nudge and I sat in between Fang and Angel. Total and Akila sat under the table at our feet. I was shocked by Total's disregard to eating at the table. He wasn't really acting like a dog, was he? Weird. Love gets ya.

I finished my third hamburger and decided I was done and I looked over to Angel. She had wolfed down about seven or eight boxes of chicken nuggets and was now swinging her feet back and forth in a little girly six-year-old type of way. Then she started humming. _I know that tune…_ What was it? I raised an eyebrow and she beamed up at me.

"La, la, la, la, la, la, la," she sang. I shook my head. Whatever the song was the tune was as sure as heck annoying. Then she started whispering the words. At first it sounded like "Eh knot humming ew on't no." Then she began singing louder and I figured out what she was saying. "I know something you don't know."

My eyes widened and I practically slammed my soda down onto the picnic table. I heard a chuckle come from Iggy and I shot a glare at him. Worthless. Angel just smiled and kept singing the annoying song. I wanted to kill the person who made it up. If they were already dead, I'd bring them to life and kill them again. And I wanted to kill Iggy. He told her. I grabbed Angel's arm and pulled the little girl aside, FAR away from the table.

"Okay, missy, what do you know?" She smiled again innocently and shrugged. "Ang, come on."

"You leaned over and kissed Fang. On the lips." She smiled again. She was acting so childlike. It was odd.

"No…" I denied. Which was true. He had kissed me. Then I kissed him back. But I didn't start it. "And who told you this?" I demanded.

Again she shrugged and again I became annoyed. I gave her my death glare and she stiffened up. She wasn't getting out of this one easy. "You said it. Or well…you thought it."

I sighed. "Angel, you've really got to stop this whole mind reading thing. Unless we need it for our survival then it's okay. But really, you need to stop." I saw a disappointed look wash across her face and she looked down.

"Sorry."

I wanted to scream. For the love of Pete she was just so darn difficult! I was mad at her and now the look on her face made me angry with myself. I knelt down to her level and gave her a quick hug. Then I looked her in the eyes. "No telling…or passing on by any way this information to _anyone_. Got that?"

Angel smiled again and walked back to the picnic table. I sighed and went back to my seat. Iggy was smiling as he ate. I wanted to slap the grin off of his face. Maybe I'd give him amnesia and he wouldn't remember. Bad idea. I looked towards Fang who looked totally amused by the whole situation. He smiled at me, teeth and all, which made me laugh a little and I tried to forget about it. I'd just have to live with the fact that people were starting to find out that Fang and I were…closer than they thought we were.

--

ATTENTION ALL FLOCK PASSANGERS: YOU'RE FLIGHT HAS BEEN DELAYED BY QUITE A FEW HOURS DUE TO HEAVY WINDS AND TRAFFIC.

Yes, wind and traffic delay. Weird right? We were in Charleston when the winds started becoming a little stronger than we were comfortable with so we landed until the storm passed. No it wasn't another hurricane (thank God) but they were really strong and hard to fly through. Once we landed we started hearing noises above us like thunder. And some of it could have been thunder. Wouldn't surprise me from all the rain and wind. But anyway, there were jets screaming through the sky above us. I don't know how many but it looked close to a hundred. That worried me. I looked at Fang for an answer.

"Air show?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. There are a lot of them and why would they have an air show in this weather? No one would be able to see them do any tricks or anything."

Gazzy looked at me, eyes wide with excitement. Iggy was looking around like he had no idea what was going on…because he probably didn't so Gazzy went over and started explaining to him what the rest of us were saying. I saw Iggy's face light up. I felt bad that he couldn't see it. Despite my concern it was pretty cool to watch these things fly through the air. I wondered how they stayed up there. It's difficult enough for us to carry even Akila and Total but having a like 100,000 pound metal thing fly through the sky? How'd they stay up?

Nudge yawned and stretched her arms a little. I think everyone was beginning to get a little tired, including me. It was probably around seven at night or so and I supposed a little rest wouldn't hurt. The problem was that there weren't very many trees where we were and the only ones that were here were like small garden trees. Maybe if I could find an alley or something…

"There's a motel down the street," Nudge pointed out. "Do you think we can stay there?"

I cringed. A motel? Those cost a lot of money and with six of us and two dogs? And what if there were Erasers or Flyboys there? Or government? What about White coats? I considered everything. There was no way I was going to walk into a building to sleep and get us all killed.

"I dunno, sweetie. They cost a lot of money." Nudge frowned at my response. Fang pulled me aside for a moment and I could see a smirk on Iggy's face and I got angry all over again.

"Look, Max," he said sternly. I hadn't heard that tone of voice in a while. Was he angry at me? What did I do this time? "I think we should stay there."

"I don't think it's a very good idea, Fang."

"Why?" he looked at me like I was crazy.

"Because it could be full of…_bad people_." Yeah, call me paranoid but something about getting into mortal danger wherever you go puts a damper on feeling safe.

I shuttered thinking about our Flock returning to the School and getting stuck with needles again. It hadn't been that long since we had been in that situation and I was trying to make a new record. That would totally blow it and I'd have to start all over. So much for a New Year's resolution.

"If there are any bad people we'll kick their butts. We always have in the past. And you look like you need some nice rest. You seem really tired lately. Sleeping in trees all the time isn't good for us anyway." He had a really good point.

I was tired…probably from all the stupid couple/fighting stress going around. That and flying from Virginia to Hawaii and only making it to the capitol of the next state. We've been slow, okay? I sighed and decided to give in. What could one night hurt? Famous last words, right? So I gathered up the group and we made our way to the motel.

--

"Six hundred dollars? For a _motel_?" I asked the lady at the counter. She flipped back her blond hair over her shoulder and examined her fake nails. Wasn't she too…oh I don't know…_delicate_ to be working here? The girl nodded and popped her gum. I wanted to shove it down her throat and watch her choke. I was not spending six hundred dollars for one night in a motel and two rooms. No way. I was about ready to leave before she spoke up again.

"Okay…like I guess I can lower the price. But the dogs have to stay in the kennels." I heard a wine come from Total and I tapped him with my foot.

"By how much?" Iggy asked.

The girl stuck her lips out like she was about ready to kiss someone and looked up. "Five fifty?"

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Five dollars and fifty cents or five hundred and fifty dollars?" Nice question.

"Uh…the second one. Five hundred and fifty dollars. And the dogs can stay for free."

I almost choked. _What_? Didn't she _just_ say six hundred? I looked over at Angel. Mind tricks? Angel shook her head and shrugged. So what possessed this girl to just lower the price and let us stay for fifty bucks? I wished I hadn't known the answer. I saw the girl look over at Fang and give a big smile. He shoved his hands in his pockets and gave a weak smile back. _Oh jeez_. I thought. Not this again.

"On second thought," I began, "I think the hotel down the street is cheaper." Fang hit me in the arm. "Ow! Okay, jeez." I rolled my eyes and handed the girl the discount. She gave us our pass keys and took the dogs to the kennels. As we left to go upstairs she waved to Fang and smiled again.

"Enjoy your stay!" She would like that, wouldn't she?

--

I shoved the pass key into the room for us girls and slammed open the door. Once everyone was in I slammed it shut. That girl made me sick. Why did Fang have to be so…Fang? I hated him for it. I looked around the room. There were two beds.

"I could share one with Angel," Nudge offered.

"You don't have to, Nudge," I replied. I think she was being nice 'cause she knew I was pissed. Smart move.

"It's alright. You should have a bed of your own. We'll be okay."

I smiled and patted her head. That's my girl. There was a knock on the door. I got up and looked out of the little hole of the door. It was Gazzy, Iggy and Fang. I let them in. Gazzy ran in and jumped on Nudge and Angel's bed, grabbing the remote and flipping on the TV. I closed the door behind them. I heard the wind whistle through the sky and trees outside. It was a pretty good storm.

Iggy made his way to the mini fridge and stove in the corner of the room. For a motel it was pretty nice. He rumbled around and sighed.

"There's nothing in here but water. What are we going to eat? We don't have much food left."

He was right. I hadn't thought about stopping to get more food.

"We could go to the market," Fang suggested.

I looked at him, doubtful. "All six of us? What about Akila and Total?"

"Or we could just go." Fang pointed to me. I was up for it. I didn't want the little kids running around screaming and asking for this and that while we were there. It'd be too distracting. I nodded my head and turned to Iggy.

"What were you thinking to cook up, Chef Iggy?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Scrambled eggs or something for breakfast. Bacon."

"We could do that. I'll also get some things for lunches for the next few days."

"Oh! And snacks!" Nudge called from over on the bed. I could hear the sound of really fake effects from cartoons coming from the TV.

A gathered a mental list and headed out the door with Fang. I was happy that we wouldn't have five more people along with us but I was also a little nervous being alone with Fang. I still wasn't used to the whole idea that we discussed. It was still a little strange to me. We walked out of the lobby and on the street. It was dark out and you couldn't see the stars or the moon because of the wind so the only lighting we had was from street lights and cars passing by. The wind started up again and I pulled my sweatshirt closer to me. It was really, really cold. I was surprised it wasn't snowing or something.

My breath almost left me when I felt Fang's arm wrap around my waist. Was he trying to keep me warm or was this just one of those closeness things that come with being a couple? I decided not to do anything besides the awkwardness of it. For some reason part of me didn't feel right but the other part of me felt perfect. Maybe it was just my returning doubtfulness about everything. I decided to ignore it and…go with the flow. Gee that sounded familiar.

When we reached the market Fang took his arm back and I grabbed one of those wheely baskets and leaned on it, pushing it through the store. It was weird. I almost felt normal. God forbid.

"So what all do we need?" Fang asked.

"Uh…eggs, bacon, bread, some kind of meat stuff…maybe cheese. And snacks. Oh and we should probably get some bottled water."

Fang nodded and we started gathering our supplies for our next trip. While we walked around, I looked at every face that passed by us. No one here looked suspicious or like a transforming mutant but you never know. Danger kind of seems to follow us everywhere we go. I wondered why Itex kept creating these experiments if all they ended up doing was killing them in the end. It didn't make any sense.

We were in the bakery trying to choose what bread we wanted when a little girl walked up to us. She tugged on the leg of my pants and my eyes shot down. She was cute. She had on a grey jacket and a plaid skirt with white stockings and black shiny shoes. Her hair was in big curls with a headband. She looked like she was going to church or something. But something seemed wrong. She looked scared. I knelt down to be face level with her.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked her. Right as I did I regretted it. The little girl started crying. I looked up at Fang for some help. He knelt beside me and started rubbing her back, trying to comfort her.

"My-my mommy," she heaved out. Her mom what? What happened?

The girl sniffled and wiped her nose on her coat. As I waited for her to respond I looked around. No one else was around us; just the occasional passerby with a cart or hand basket.

"She's not breathing," the little girl finished in a sob.

I looked at Fang, wide eyed. She wasn't breathing? Why'd she tell us? There were like adults and stuff in here and she picked two teenagers? Then she grabbed my hand and started to pull me where I think her mom was. I handed Fang the money and told him to meet me outside the store after he paid for our stuff. This couldn't take more than a minute.

The little girl led me outside where the wind was still blowing really hard. The girl led me to a minivan and I became suspicious. A van? I've never had good experiences with vans. Either I get tied up and thrown in them or I crash them. They were like screaming metal death traps. But this girl didn't look evil. Then again, someone could be using her. Like those two starving kids from Itex meant to spy on us. Then she opened the driver seat door and when I looked inside I gasped.

A woman sat there with her head on the wheel, her body limp. Had she had a heart attack? A stroke? Just randomly passed out? I grabbed her arm and felt for a pulse—nothing. Then I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. It was like something from a horror story. The lady's eyes were open as well as her mouth and she was…dead. It was so weird and creepy. The girl started crying again and I knelt down and gave her a hug.

"Shhh. It'll be okay. I'll help you."

I heard footsteps behind me and whipped my head around. It was Fang with the grocery bags. I let out a little sigh of relief and he set the bags down and looked inside of the car.

"Oh jeez," I heard him whisper. I nodded.

I picked the girl up and faced him. Fang leaned the woman back down onto the steering wheel and pushed her hair off of her neck. I saw his lips tighten and he took a deep breath. He motioned me over and I looked at her neck. The numbers 04-19-08 were tattooed on it. That was today's date. She was…one of Them.

"That's weird," Fang said. "Usually they say the creation date and batch number, not the expiration date."

"But why does she have a daughter if she's part of Itex? Is she a new type of Eraser or something?"

Fang shook his head. "I don't think so. But she may be someone like Sue Ann." I shuddered remembering the incident back in Antarctica.

"What are we going to do with her and…her?"

Fang went around to the other side of the car and got in. I shifted my head to the side. I looked towards the little girl in my arms. She had fallen asleep. Great. Fang came back out with a cell phone in his hands.

"You're not gonna call the cops are you?"

"What else can we do? We can't just leave her here. What if the kid has a dad? I don't want to be hauled off to jail for child abduction."

He had a point. But what were we going to tell the cops? 'Oh yeah, we were shopping and a little girl told us her mom was dead. When we went out to check, her mom turned out to be someone altered by Itex and today was her expiration date. They were probably out to hunt us bird kids down and destroy us.' Yeah, great story. Then we'd end up on Good Morning America or Oprah or something. Either that or they'd think our story was a little outrageous and they'd arrest us for murder.

"Here we go," Fang said. I walked over to his side and glanced at the screen. "Here's the number for her home. Maybe if she does have a dad or something we can contact him."

"Yeah or maybe it's the number for Itex and they'd ship us off to the School again." It was possible.

Fang rolled his eyes and pressed the "call" button. I held my breath.

"Um…hello?" There was a pause. "No she didn't lose her phone. I hate to say this, Sir, but I'm afraid your wife is dead." Another pause. "No I'm not a cop. Your daughter found us in the store and told us to help her because her mom wasn't breathing." … "Um Safeway, Sir."

I tapped my foot. The kid was still asleep and she was pulling on my hair. I was _never_ having kids. Ever. Fang closed the phone and sighed.

"Her dad is coming. We should probably get out of here."

I nodded. I hated just leaving the kid here with her dead Itex mother but if her dad came and he was from Itex, too this wouldn't end well for any of us. And if her dad was normal, we'd be like interviewed or something and the last thing we need right now is to be interviewed on Morning Express with Robin Mead. I walked to the sliding door on the van and opened it.

There was a car seat and I placed her in it trying to get my hair loose. Success. The girl didn't wake up. I felt her pulse. She was alive, just really tired. I shut the door and turned to Fang who had picked the bags up again.

"Should we wait here until we see him coming and then leave?" I asked. Leaving her here by herself bugged me. It was late. What if someone kidnapped her or something?

Fang shook his head. He leaned the lady back in the chair and closed her eyes. I could tell he hated doing it even if she was Itex. He probably felt bad for the kid. Then he reached for the keys and pressed the "lock" button. I hoped the guy coming had an extra set otherwise he'd have a hard time getting his kid out of the car. At least they'd be somewhat safe until he showed up. After closing the car door Fang and I headed back for the motel.

"Do you think they know we're here? Is that why that lady is here?" I asked quietly. The whole situation freaked me out.

"I think they're just everywhere in case we're here," he admitted. "Either that or it's for some other test they're doing to see if their creations could make it in the real world. Maybe she was created a long time ago, just wired up not really altered and she lived out her life documented or something."

I shrugged. Whatever the reason I hated it. And it gave me a reason to leave this town first thing in the morning.

--

When we knocked on the door, it was about an hour after we left and it was probably eight o'clock. Iggy opened the door and smiled. He couldn't see our gloomy faces. Fang set the groceries on the counter and went to the bed and sat by Angel. I heard running water.

"What's with the water?"

"Nudge is in the shower," Gazzy replied. He was lying on Angel and Nudge's bed with his eyes closed, not really asleep.

I sighed and leaned against the door. That event just about pushed me over the edge and I couldn't get my mind off of the little girl. If that happened to me, if my mom had died, I don't know what I'd do. I mean, for a long time I didn't know who my mom was and that was painful. But now that I do know and I love her to death, if she died I think my world would end. Iggy stepped in front of me.

"What's wrong?"

"This whole fiasco at the store. When Fang and I were shopping, this little girl came up to us and started crying. She said that her mom wasn't breathing. So when we followed her out, she led us to her car and her mom was in the driver's seat and leaned over the steering wheel."

Nudge came out with a towel wrapped on top of her head, trying to dry her hair. She sat on the bed to listen to the rest of the story.

"I felt her pulse and there was nothing. Then Fang checked the back of her neck and it said today's date."

"Oh my God," Nudge said. "Is she an Eraser?"

I shook my head. "No. She was too normal looking. So Fang took the lady's cell phone and called the kid's dad to come and get her. She was asleep when I put her back in the car and we left. It was awful."

I put a hand on my forehead and looked down. Iggy laid a hand on my shoulder supportively.

"You said that on the back of her neck was today's date?" Gazzy asked, now up and alert. Fang nodded. "Why'd they put the expiration date?"

"That's what we were wondering about. I guess they have a new system." Fang scratched his head, probably stressed about the whole situation. It had been a long day.

"I'm gonna take a shower," I said.

--

The water felt nice. Like I was washing all of the dirt away. And I was, but in both ways. That scene at the store made me feel dirty. And if you added the jet scene I just felt like I was being watched and it made me feel really gross. I can't really explain it. I wondered what my mom and Ella were doing. If they were staying in D.C. or if they were heading back to their home. Would Jeb follow them or go back to the School? I don't think he could now after what he's done. Letting us escape and all. I wondered if people were after him, too. It wouldn't surprise me. Itex hates everyone who hates them. I guess that makes sense, though.

I shut off the water and dried off, putting my clothes back on. Then I made a circle in the mirror, wiping away the steam. No Eraser. Just me. My hair seemed to be a little darker than normal. Either I was changing as I got older or it was just the lack of warmth and sunshine. Hawaii would fix that. I combed out my hair and went to my bed. The guy seemed to have left to their room and Angel was asleep in bed. I smiled. She was so sweet when she slept. And she couldn't read minds. I lied down on my bed and sighed. It was a nice change compared to a tree. I felt someone sit next to me. It was Nudge.

"What's gonna happen to the little girl?" she asked.

"I dunno. I wish I knew. I hated leaving her there. It was like leaving her there to die even though I knew her dad was coming and she wasn't hurt or anything. The whole situation is just screwed up."

"Do you think they'll find us here?"

I thought about what Fang had said when I asked him a similar question.

"I don't think so. We'll be fine, I promise." I kissed her forehead. "Now go to sleep."

Nudge smiled and climbed off into bed. I turned off the light and sighed. I started to have a really bad feeling about this place. I wasn't sure if it was the fact it was a small hotel or if the day's events were haunting me. Either way I was ecstatic to leave in the morning.


	4. Storm Clouds

I couldn't sleep. It was awful. I couldn't get _anything_ off of my mind. So I decided to just stare at the ceiling and think about a song. That's when I heard noises outside. I listened closely. I could hear the wind which was getting louder and I could hear the pounding of rain on the roof. I looked to the door. The light underneath was flickering. I thought the power would go out. The clock next to me said 2 a.m. I figured that was probably right. If it had gone out it would say 12:00 and would be flashing.

I thought I was about to fall asleep when I heard a faint knock on the door. It startled me and I jumped a little. My heard pounded as I made my way to the door and glanced out of the little hole. Fang. What was he doing? Could he not sleep either? I opened the door and he motioned for me to come out into the hallway. I grabbed the passkey off the counter and shut the door quietly behind me. We spoke in whispers.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know. I just feel like something bad is gonna happen. I think it's just me, though." Fang blushed a little. He looked embarrassed.

"Truth is so do I." That wasn't a good sign. We both felt something was wrong?

"I think we should go back to that parking lot where that van was."

I looked at him like he was crazy. Which he was. "Why? We called the guy and he's coming. That's it. What else is there to do?"

"I just think there's something else we need to check out."

I shook my head. "I'm not buying it. I'm sorry but I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

His eyebrows narrowed. He was getting mad. Jeez. "Then I'll go alone."

Fang started to walk down the hall towards the stairs but I grabbed his wrist.

"Oh no you're not. You promised." Fang turned around and I looked him straight in the eyes. There was no way he was leaving us. Not after what he said.

"Fine," he said. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me downstairs. I wasn't getting out of this one. I sighed and sped my pace up so he wouldn't pull my arm out of its socket. When we opened the doors of the lobby we were greeted by a huge gust of wind and rain. I closed my eyes and entered the storm with Fang. It wasn't a hurricane but it was hard to walk in. I strengthened my grasp on Fang's hand to keep from being knocked over and we ran back to the Safeway parking lot.

When we got there the van was still parked in the same pace it had been when we left. I started become weary of the situation. That was just weird. Maybe the kid's dad didn't want the car? Doubt it. We walked up to it, shielding our eyes from the wind and peeked into the car. It was hard to see in the back because the windows were tinted but when I looked in the driver's side I almost freaked.

It was so gross. The woman in the front seat began, get this, _melting_. Yeah, nasty, right? I'm serious. Her skin was like dripping off of her like melting ice cream. I looked at Fang, horrified. He grabbed for the handle of the car door.

"Ow!" he yelled and pulled his hand away. "Jeez that thing is like a thousand degrees. What's going on?"

I bundled up my sweatshirt sleeve around my hand and used it like a hot pad and reached for the door, expecting it to be locked. But it opened. Heat poured out of the car. I looked down and almost barfed right there. The melting skin was running out of the car and it smelled like…well burning flesh. It was nasty. I turned away and covered my mouth and nose with my hands. I really wanted to puke. When I turned around I saw Fang checking out the situation. He closed the door and raced to the other side and looked in the back. I followed him.

And to our disbelief (if that was possible), in the back seat of the van was the little girl that I had placed there. Her dad hadn't showed up. What was going on? Fang pressed a button to unlock the back of the car. I gulped and ran around and opened the sliding door with my sweatshirt wrapped around my hand. I grabbed the girl's arm and checked for a pulse. There was one but it was faint and slow.

"Fang!" within a second he was beside me. "She's alive." I said, trying not to choke from the smell.

"Get her out. I'm gonna try and figure out what's going on."

While Fang inspected the car I took the little girl out. I sat down and cradled her in my arms. She wasn't melting like her mom. I figured it was because of the whole Itex mutant thing. But the girl was sweating. I pushed her bangs off of her face and tried to wake her up. Either she was unconscious or she was asleep.

"Hey," I said softly but loud enough to hear over the wind. I wished I had known her name. "Sweetie, wake up." I shook her softly but nothing happened. "Come on, please wake up." I begged. This was killing me. I was holding the girl as she died.

"Hey Max, come here!"

I picked the girl up and followed over to Fang's voice. He was in the passenger seat and he had the car on. I stopped by him and shivered. He had turned the air conditioning on. I looked to his hands. _Gross_. They were covered in melted…thing. I was never holding his hands until he scrubbed both of them at least a thousand times with bleach or something. Then he reached into her melting body and pulled something out. I couldn't take it. I gently laid the girl on the pavement and went to the bushes and hurled. This was way too disgusting for me.

After my moment was over and I was successfully lightheaded I made my way back to the car holding my stomach with my hand. Fang gave me a sympathetic look. I moved the girl away from the door so Fang could get out. He took a water gallon out of the car and rinsed off his hands and the thing he pulled out of the lady. I watched trying not to throw up again. I can't even describe this. It was way too weird for me. Was her skin like plastic or something and they filled it with blood and functioning body parts? It reminded me of Box Boy and Gozen. I shuttered.

"Max, check this out." Fang held up what he had removed from the lady and washed off.

"What is it?"

"A box."

I looked at him like, _no duh_. He moved the box around in his hands a few times and finally found a place to open it. I was skeptic. I thought a heart would be sitting in it or something. But I was wrong, to my pleasure. It was just a whole bunch of wiring and it had a code on it. Like a mechanical heart? Not so gross but still weird.

"It's just a bunch of symbols. What are we going to do?" I asked Fang.

He shrugged and I went back to facing the girl while Fang peeled the label off of the metal box. I held her again and stroked her hair. What were we going to do with her? Then her eyes slowly opened. I sighed in relief. She was regaining consciousness. Her big brown eyes looked up into mine.

"Help me," she said weakly. I wanted to die.

I looked into the car at the melted body running out of the car. I really didn't get it. Then I looked back at the girl. She seemed perfectly human. I was thankful for that. I needed to take her somewhere. The police station? No. Hospital? That was my best bet here. I didn't want to go anywhere for publicity reasons but if I didn't take her somewhere she'd die. I couldn't have that on my conscience. I'd go crazy. Well, unless I already was. I looked to Fang.

"We need to get her to a hospital. I don't know what else to do. And what do we do about…that?"

Fang sighed. The wind had died down mostly and we didn't have to yell anymore. It was still raining, though and we were getting soaked to the skin. We needed to get this kid somewhere safe.

"Okay. Just leave the car here. Let's get her to a hospital."

He looked to the ground. He looked totally depressed and scared like he had no clue what to do. I really wished I could go over and give him a great big hug but part of me told me not to. The lady melting in the car had totally creeped him out too but he had actually reached inside of her and pulled out wires and stuff. He was probably mortified. I wondered if this was Itex's new subject. No wonder the woman had an expiration date. They melt, I mean come on! I thought having wings was weird enough. Then he looked back at me with an unreadable expression and nodded. In a flash he was up in the sky. I followed him.

--

It had taken us about thirty minutes to find a hospital. Fang was now holding the little girl and she was shaking. I wished I had a blanket for her. Fang just stared down at her with worry. We landed in the back parking lot of the hospital and went into the entrance that said EMERGENCY in big green, glowing letters. We looked around. It was surprisingly empty. Fang sat down with her as I walked up to the front desk. A lady in a wheely chair spun around from her computer and looked me in the eyes. Something about her was off but I couldn't identify it. I kept my guard up.

"Um…we found a little girl and we think she needs some medical attention. She keeps going in and out of consciousness and her heartbeat is real slow."

The woman nodded and got on the phone. She asked for someone named Dr. Taylor to come out to the front lobby; that someone needed his immediate attention. The woman got off the phone and told me to go sit down and wait. I went back and sat in the chair next to Fang. I looked at the girl in his arms. She was sleeping now. I watched as Fang took off his jacket and placed it over her.

"Fang…what about…you know…" I meant his wings. He was only wearing a t-shirt. What if someone noticed?

He shrugged. "That's kind of the least of our problems right now."

Was it? I thought that was the whole problem. I heard the girl cough and I looked down at her. Maybe it wasn't. I watched the way Fang held her and looked at her and tried to comfort her. It was really sweet, really. He held her like she was his daughter and all he wanted was for her to be safe and well. I guess he caught my stare and turned to me. His dark eyes emotionless. He also looked really tired and he had a hard time keeping his eyes open. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a woman in a white coat walking out. I stiffened up. The whole lab coat thing still gets me. I don't think I'll ever get over it. They scared us.

The woman didn't look all that old. She was probably in her late twenties, early thirties. She had black hair and dark eyes, like Fang. But she looked very kind. Her figure was slim and her smile was comforting. She looked like a mother. The woman knelt down in front of Fang and took the little girl's wrist, feeling her pulse. After a minute or so she let go and stood up.

"I'm Dr. Taylor," she said. "Are you this child's parents?"

My eyes widened and I felt a blush run across my cheeks. _Parents?_ Did we really look that old? 'Cause last time I checked I looked fourteen.

"Uh," Fang's voice cracked, embarrassed. I held back a laugh. "We're only like…fourteen."

Dr. Taylor gave a smile. "Okay, okay, sorry. I've heard many weird cases, I was just wondering. I had a child when I was seventeen and you look a little older than fourteen so I was just checking."

Seventeen? She had a kid? Huh. I thought she was the mom type. But seventeen? Isn't that a little young?

"We found the girl alone in a parking lot," I half lied. What else was I supposed to say? That her mom was in the car with her melting? No way. "She didn't look so good so we decided to bring her here."

"Good choice," Dr. Taylor said. "Follow me."

Fang cradled the girl in his arms and we followed the doctor into a room down the hall. Fang placed her on the examining table and we sat in the chairs as Dr. Taylor checked her out.

"She looks like she has heat stroke. Good thing you brought her here, she could have died." She said after a few minutes.

Heat stroke, huh? My only question was how ANYONE could get heat stroke in this kind of weather and how the car got heated in the first place. It wasn't even on. "Oh," I said not wanting to spill the beans.

"I'm going to have to run some tests, though. Do you mind? It'll only take a few minutes."

I looked to Fang and he shook his head. Then Dr. Taylor picked the girl up and left. Once the door shut Fang looked back at me, face curious.

"She had a kid at seventeen," he stated. Yeah, I got that.

"Yep. That's kinda young, dontchya think?"

Fang looked down and I wondered what he was thinking about. I kinda hoped he wasn't thinking what I thought he was thinking but he nodded.

"Remember how we always thought my mom was a crack addict teenager?" I nodded my head wondering where he was going with this. "Well if my mom had me at seventeen that would make her thirty one now."

I raised my eyebrows. "That can't be her, Fang. I mean, really. I don't mean to crush you but that would be very unlikely."

Fang gave me a weak glare. "And it was unlikely that your parents would be Dr. Martinez and Jeb."

He had a point there. A very, very good point. Man, he was on a role over the past few days. "So what if this lady was your mom? What would you do?"

He shrugged and sat back. "I don't know. I just kinda want it to be her, ya know? But then I don't. I think I'd hate her for giving me up."

"Do you want to find out?"

Before I got an answer Dr. Taylor walked back into the room. "I'm having some other doctors help me with some tests. So I want some info from you guys. Where did you find this little girl?"

I looked at Fang again for answers. I wondered why I wasn't taking charge here. I was the leader wasn't I? "We found her in the parking lot at Safeway," Fang confessed. I wanted to slam my head into the wall behind me. This was going to end very badly. Fang told Dr. Taylor the story minus the melting Itex lady and us being flying mutants. He just told her that the mom had died, probably from heat stroke like the kid had almost because the car was so dang hot. And he didn't mention the fact that we had called the home number on the cell phone and that we had been there earlier. The doctor just nodded.

"Unfortunately these types of things happen often," she explained. I was shocked. "But we'll investigate. Thank you for bringing her in. I have all the information from you that I need so you can go back home if you want."

I was about to get up when Fang asked Dr. Taylor a question. "How old are you?"

I stared at Fang. She probably thought he was hitting on her or something because she started looking a bit uncomfortable. I looked at her hands. She had a wedding ring on. I'm not sure if that helped or not. Dr. Taylor cleared her throat and looked between me and Fang.

"Thirty one," she stated. "Why?"

Fang looked like he was about to freak. Or throw up. Or both. The third option seemed more appropriate. "So you had a kid at seventeen?"

I slammed an elbow into Fang's side and he winced. "Sorry. He's kind of out of it right now. You know, weird type of day. And he's tired. Let's go-."

"I did," she answered. "A little boy." She sighed. "But I had to give him away. I kind of had a complicated past. Made a few mistakes. I wished I hadn't done what I did but I made sure I gave my child to someone respectable. I interviewed a man who said that he would take my son to an orphanage in Virginia. He said that he would be taken care of nicely there and that there was some other kids he'd fit in great with. So I took his word and handed over my son. I cried watching them go."

Fang held his breath. "What…what was the man's name? And your son's?" Dr. Taylor probably thought Fang was crazy for asking so many questions but she answered them anyway, like she was finally letting out a secret. I think she was.

"I never named the child because I knew I'd get too attached. Now I know that was a mistake. I wish I had named him just so that I could pray for him by name. But the man's name…I'm not sure if I'm remembering it right but I'm pretty sure his name was…Judd? No, no that's not right. Jeb. Yes. Jeb Batchelder."

I looked to Fang. He was frozen in his seat. I didn't know what to say…what to think. The lady in front of us, Dr. Taylor, was his mother. Fang's mother. It was weird. And she had given him up to help him but she had wanted him. It must have been hard for her. Well it was from what she told us. I looked back and forth between them, waiting for Fang to say "I'm your son" but it didn't happen. He just told her thank you, grabbed his jacket and walked out. I followed him back outside where the storm had subsided.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly. Fang just nodded. I remembered his hands but brushed it off. I'd wash mine later. I reached over and grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. He looked down at me but didn't smile. I knew he was trying to soak all of this in. He had found out who his mother was and that she did want him but he didn't say who he was. I wondered if he regretted it or not.

I leaned against Fang a little bit but he didn't do anything—just kept on walking not wanting to fly right now. I could tell he was heartbroken from both the incident with the little girl and Dr. Taylor. I thought about what would happen when the cops showed up at the Safeway parking lot and discovered the melted body. What they would link it to and investigate. I hoped they didn't track us down or anything. I didn't want to end up in the middle of an investigation or anything. And what about that guy Fang talked to? Where was he?

--

We walked in silence the rest of the way back and stopped outside of my door. It was still dark out but I had no idea what time it was. I hoped no one had woken up to see us missing. I didn't want to explain this. I just wanted to forget it and I'm pretty sure that's what Fang wanted too.

"Fun night, huh?" he asked, jokingly. I smiled.

"Yeah. We should do this more often."

I started getting nervous again as Fang stepped closer towards me. He slid his hands around my waist and against my back under my wings. I felt my heart in my stomach. He pulled me closer until we were touching and I placed my hands on his arms. They were strong and comforting. They were Fang. Then he lowered his head to mine and kissed me, moving his lips across mine. He had never done that before. He had just kind of stayed still. It startled me a little but I gave into it, following his motion. I breathed through my nose quickly and I started to become a little weak in the knees. We had kissed before a few times but this felt more passionate than any of the others. It was weird. It was like he was trying to tell me something. Like…he loved me.

I pulled back and looked into his eyes. They were unreadable. He just smiled and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "Thank you for coming with me."

He sounded so not Fang. Like something inside him was really scared and really hurt. And he probably was. But he'd never shown it before to anyone, not even me. So this made me a little concerned. Was he doing it because we were together now or because he couldn't hold it in this time?

Fang let me go and kissed me again before saying goodnight, stacking his fist with mine and going back into his room. I took the passkey out of my pocket and entered in my room very quietly. Then I slid back in bed and under the covers and closed my eyes. This time it wasn't hard for me to fall asleep. But even if I did knock out within seconds, the visions of mine and Fang's adventure haunted me. I don't think I'd ever be able to let it go. I don't think either of us could.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, the whole melting thing is a little weird. But it's not random...and neither are the jets. It'll all make sense in a few chapters or so. That's all for now! Posting may become a little slower because I have to go back to school tomorrow...if it stops snowing.**


	5. MAX

**Yeah, short chapter. I'm sorry—especially because it took me so long to update this. High school fills up your schedule. But, alas, here is chapter five. –foreverandalwaysyours **

* * *

We stopped for lunch at around noon that day. We had sandwiches from the food Fang and I had bought at Safeway the day before. I was trying not to get everyone hooked on fast food and clogged arteries. When we started eating, a truck pulled up in the parking lot, radio blasting. Only it wasn't music, oddly enough. I tried to ignore it but it was like everything around me shut down and all I could pay attention to was the noise coming from the speakers of the black Ford.

"After receiving an emergency phone call," the man began, "cops and reporters went to a Charleston Safeway parking lot to investigate a tragedy. It seems a little girl, around six, was dropped off at Charleston Medical Center at around the hours of two a.m."

I paused and stopped eating my sandwich. Dr. Taylor had said that she'd investigate. I didn't know it would make the news, though. Then again, there was the whole melting scene.

"But when police and investigation crews got there," he continued, "they were in for an unwelcome surprise. It seems the driver of a white van that the girl was said to be found in by the people who dropped the child off at the hospital had _melted_. After checking through the scene, it was found that the person was robotic with internal hardware organs. But when crews found a metal box and opened it, it appeared that the box had a label ripped out so the product was unidentifiable. After police called backup, the van mysteriously exploded. One officer was killed in this explosion. But the weirdest part about the explosion was the aftermath. On the ground, written in the ashes, were the letters X-V-W. The Safeway has been closed for investigation. If anyone has any information about the scene, please call 911 and report your findings."

Fang and I stood stiff. The rest of the Flock didn't even seem to notice the report. Were we the only ones who heard it? I saw Fang reach into his pocket and pull out the label he had ripped off the box. I looked over at the label. It had no letters on it at all. What had the letters in the ashes stood for? Fang's eyes widened and he took out a pencil from our backpack and on the back of the label he wrote the letters the reporter described. Then he flipped the label upside down and stared at it. I glanced over. The letters were an M, an upside down V and an X. I glanced at Fang.

"I don't get it," I told him. "MVX? What does that stand for?"

Fang shook his head. "Not MVX. MAX. It's your name. They spelled out your name in the ashes."

I felt my stomach turn. It was Itex all right. I closed my eyes and banged my head on my arm which lied on the table. I felt Gazzy poke me in the side.

"What's wrong? Another headache?" he asked. I shook my head. We needed to leave. Now.

I told everyone to clean up and make an up, up and away and then we were off. I didn't know what was going to happen but I needed to get out. And we needed to find a library. I was itching to figure out what that code on the paper was.

--

The nearest town we found was about two hours away. Of course the Flock was wondering why we needed a library; I just told them I needed to do a quick Itex search. When we got there I instantly went over to a computer and opened up a Google search. Fang leaned over and leaned on the back of my chair. I had Iggy, Gazzy and Angel stay outside with the dogs. If we had any trouble cracking this, we could have Nudge's help.

"So what exactly is this code?" Nudge asked, sitting in the chair next to mine.

Fang pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Nudge. She placed a finger on her chin and examined it. I looked it over as well. It little arrows pointing for different letters, I guess and weird symbols that looked like road signs.

Nudge blinked and scratched her head. "I don't think this is a code…" Nudge said. I groaned. Now what? "I think it's another language."

I looked at her. "Like what? Itexian? I wonder if they have any translation books around here."

I got up to go into the nearest bathroom and scream bloody murder when Fang called me over. I rushed to his side and looked at the screen. I wanted to slap him.

"Now's not the time to look at how pretty you can make your name," I said commenting on his looking at fonts.

Fang shook his head and scrolled down to some of the last fonts. He clicked on "Webdings" and typed in AEIOU. It came out as a check mark, then a present, an "i" with a circle around it, a boat and a bus sign. No good. Then he tried "Wingdings". Nadda. Then he tried "Wingdings 3" and typed in AEIOU-- one arrow to the right, one going up with one by it's side going in the opposite direction, two arrows pointing right on top of each other, and arrow pointing to the left in a sideways "U" shape, and one that I couldn't tell what it was. SUCCESS! Let's hear it for the boy. Fang leaned back in the chair and sighed.

"This is gonna take forever." He typed up the whole alphabet in English, and then below it in the special font. "Now all we have to do is crack this code." He said matter-of-factly. He typed in the first letter in the code and looked up to see its English match. It was an "S". Great. One letter down, a bagillion more to go.

Nudge rolled her eyes and took the keyboard from Fang. "Slow poke," she muttered.

She typed in all the letters in the code on the label and into the computer. Then she highlighted the code and pressed on an English font in the list. Way to go, Nudge. The code translated. We all read it and my eyes widened. SAVE THE WORLD MAX. ITEX NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED. GO TO KANSAS AND FIND DR. LYONS. I looked once to Fang and once to Nudge and then back at the screen. Kansas? I thought we were going to Hawaii. _Think as you wish._ I heard the Voice say. Think as I wish? What did that mean? I wanted a gun to shoot the Voice. Then it would be gone forever. Aw, too bad. Unless it was immortal, which was very likely.

"Kansas?" Nudge asked. "What's in _Kansas_?"

"Apparently someone named Dr. Lyons," I stated. "I don't know about this, though. Doesn't Itex hate us? So if they put this in that creepy melting…thing then wouldn't that be a trick to pull us down to an Itex in Kansas to Dr. Lyons so that he could, oh I don't know, kill us?"

"Then why would it say 'Itex needs to be destroyed'?" Nudge asked. You naïveté child.

"They're just saying that because they know we hate them. It's a trap, I just know it."

_Things aren't always what they appear to be. Go to Kansas and find Dr. Lyons. He'll help you with your mission. But be very careful while you're there. You don't want this to turn out like your Antarctic adventure._ So the voice wanted me to go, too huh? Either the voice was evil or I was totally overlooking this. Which, as Fang says, I do often. Yes, yes. I have a voice in my head. So far I haven't needed psychiatric help so I think I'm okay for the time being. But if this keeps up I don't think my sanity will want to keep up.

"So let's say we go to Kansas," I started. "And this guy does help us. Do you think we'll get some answers on how to beat these creepers?"

Fang took in a sigh that said "think". "I dunno. But we've got nothing to lose by going to this place and checking it out. I mean, if this guy can help us then we're just one step closer to saving the world. If not then we can kick some weak-normal-human-ass and get on with it all. Like I said, nothing to lose." He's right, you know. As much as I hate other people being right. I needed to pick up the pace.

"Except our lives," Nudge threw out, staring at Fang with worry in her eyes.

Oh yeah…there's that.


	6. Kansas

Kansas is cold. Very, very cold. And, just to throw this out there, I'm mad because of that. We were _supposed_ to be on our way to a nice warm beach with pink and purple horizons, grass hula skirts and coconut bras. But where are we? Freaking _Kansas._ We're in a place with just above freezing temperatures, poofy coats, long johns, ear muffs, and _padded _bras so women don't freeze to death. Good thing I'm not some part bird mutant who's here on a mission to save the world or I'd be pissed. Oh wait…

So I was so stupidly happy to finally get here and say 'whoo now what?' then realized that we actually have to find this Dr. Lyons dude. I waited for a message from the Voice to say _fifth avenue south, turn on 138__th__ street, three houses down on the left_. Too bad life ain't that easy. If it were then I'd be at my mom's house stuffing my face with chocolate chip cookies and watching reality TV with Ella.

I scoped the area, trying to find a library or something to look this guy's name up. There weren't any public buildings in the area, just a bunch of houses. We landed in a residential part of town. The houses seemed to all look the same. They were all at least two-stories, newly painted, perfectly cut grass and uniform. Either we were on a really wealthy military base or some cult people inhabited the area.

"Where should we go now?" I heard Iggy ask. "I don't hear any zooming cars or any people. We're not in the city are we?"

I shook my head. "No Iggy, we're not. I'm not really sure what next. I guess we need to find the nearest town and find someone who knows some information on this Dr. Lyons guy.

I saw Angel point to a kid walking down the street. "What about him? Do you think he would know?"

"I don't think so, Angel. Thanks though." The kid was about my height with brown, curly hair and real pale skin. He looked almost sick—maybe like he had just seen a ghost. It was kind of weird. Maybe Angel was catching on to some weird thoughts. I decided to go for it anyway. I looked at Fang and he followed me up to the kid. "Hey. Do you know anything about a Dr. Lyons?"

The kid stopped walking and moved his eyes from the sidewalk and up to mine. He looked scared, like I had just asked him to murder someone. Something was up.

"Shh!" he said. "Stupid, don't you know you're not supposed to go around asking about him?"

I looked up at Fang with a suspicious look and then back to the boy. What was he talking about? I grabbed the kid's wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction—towards a wooded area.

"Look, kid. What's up with Dr…with this guy that you're not allowed to speak his name in public? What did he do? Murder someone?" He shook his head. I looked over to Angel. She wanted to get some quiet info. I held up a finger for her to be patient. Let's see if I could make this guy talk. "Come on." The kid stood still. I rolled my eyes and stepped almost face-to-face with the kid and whispered. "Okay, here's my deal. Someone sent me here to find a guy named Dr. Lyons. They said that he could help me with a little issue I'm having. Can you _please_ tell me anything you know about him? Where he lives? What he looks like? Where he works? Anything?"

The boy gulped and looked at me. "Fine. But you can't tell nobody that _I'm_ the one who told you. Otherwise I'm a dead man. Dr. Taylor is a scientist in the medical field. He also experts in genetic engineering. He's tall with black hair, olive skin and he's got a deep Welsh accent."

I smirked. "Genetics, huh? So why is this guy so repulsive? What did he do?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it. If I tell you I could be killed. Or worse."

_Worse?_ "Why? C'mon, just tell me! I need some information here. And I promise I won't tell anyone you told me. I was just told I need to find a Dr. Lyons in Kansas. Please help me, okay?"

"Okay, okay. We're not allowed to talk about him because he was banished. Banished from Itex-."

"Whoa there," Fang interrupted. "Banished from _Itex_?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. Apparently he acted out against the law. Some say that he went around destroying the town. Some say he tried to sue the governor and break into his house for no reason. No one really knows. And if people talk about him, they're said to have helped the guy and will be killed."

"Okay…just one more question. How do you know about Itex? Do you know someone who works there? Do you know of any buildings for Itex around here?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Uh…I know tons of people who work for Itex. But there aren't any buildings around here _for_ Itex. Unless you count the City Hall."

Iggy chimed in. "What does the City Hall have to do with Itex?"

The kid looked at all of us like we were crazy. "Don't you know where you are?" he asked. I heard Gazzy say a faint 'No'. The mystery man pointed to a sign by the entrance of the neighborhood. I looked at it, dumbfounded. It read _Welcome to the City of Itex._

--

"Okay, I don't get this," said Iggy. "So we're in _Itex_, Kansas? They named a town after them? Do they want to be found out?"

I rubbed my temples with my hands. "It's been here since, 1902, Iggy. If they were going to get burned down for it they would have by now. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck Dr. Lyons did to get Itex all pissed off at him."

"That kid said that he acted out against Itex. That could either mean the city or the company." Fang said.

"I'm guessing the company," I said. "Because if it were the city, he'd be in prison or something." Nudge came up and bumped my arm. I turned towards her. "What's up?"

"What if we went to the City Hall and looked up his profile on a computer or in some files or something? I mean, if he was banished from Itex then they've got to have some record on what he did."

I smiled, proud. I've taught her well.

--

The City Hall was a big building made of bricks that looked over a hundred years old. Well…it most likely was. We walked up to the front door. A sign read "No pets allowed. Open weekdays from 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m.- 7 p.m." I looked back at the two dogs behind me.

"Iggy, can you and Gazzy take the mutts for a little stroll while the rest of us try and figure this out?" I got death glares from both Iggy and Total.

"Why is it always us," Gazzy wined. I _never_ get to help you guys!"

"Well if we need someone to gas out a building you'll be on the top of my list of people to call, okay? But for now, you and Iggy take them."

"Fine," the eight-year-old muttered.

I let out a sigh and entered the building with the rest of my Flock. Inside it was even colder than outside and the place looked abandoned. There were cobwebs everywhere and no lights on. It almost looked haunted.

"I think their Halloween carnival takes place all year round," Fang joked. He walked up to a front counter and peered over. "There's no computer here. Maybe in another room?"

I looked around. The building was a freaking mansion. It would take forever to search every room. I looked over to Nudge. "Can you like, sense computers or something?"

The girl shrugged. "Sorry. I'll work on it, though."

"Okay then. To do this the old fashioned way. Let's start with that door over there."

I pointed to the first room I saw. There were those two way mirrors from ceiling to floor beside the door so you couldn't see in. I wondered if people hid in there…like right now. I grabbed the handle and turned it to the right. It made a clicking sound and I slowly pushed the squeaky door open. The inside of this room looked as dirty and un-kept as the lobby. But, score, there were computers and files in here. The four of us went up to a computer and I sat down. I flipped on the switch and the screen made a little buzzing sound as it slowly turned on. Well at least there was electricity. The computer booted up to a black screen with documents filling the desktop.

"What, not password?" I asked. "Lame." I looked around the screen for some sign of any info on this guy we were supposed to find.

"There!" said Angel as she pointed to a folder on the desktop. It read "Scientist".

I double clicked on the folder and it opened up. There were bunches of documents on different doctors and scientists. I glazed passed one that was actually labeled "By-Half Plan". I'd check that out later. I scrolled down in the folder until I came to where the documents started beginning with 'L'. Then my eyes stopped on something labeled Lyons, Lionel. Very original. Like Steve Stevens or John Johnson. I double clicked on the document and it popped open.

On the document was a picture of this Lionel Lyons guy like the one that kid described back in that neighborhood. This had to be our man.

"Born in 1954 in Wales," I began. "Lionel Lyons grew up in Arkansas wanting to be a scientist in the field of genetic engineering. His goal was fulfilled after graduating from Harvard and he became a science teacher at the University of Washington at a young age of 30 after taking a break and getting married and traveling to his hometown in Wales. After working for five years at the University, Lyons moved to Kansas where he landed a job in genetic engineering with the company Itex in the town of Itex. Dr. Lyons was known for many great achievements such as being the first to sketch out the details for the invention of…" I paused and blinked at the screen before going on. "Human and lupine hybrids."

I leaned back in my chair and groaned. "So the creep we're looking for came up with the idea for us?" I asked to no one in particular. "We're probably on a suicide mission! The guy's gonna try and kill us!"

Fang shook his head. "Read on," he said. "In 2006, Dr. Lionel Lyons was fired from his job at Itex for disgracing the Director of Itex and condemning the By-Half and Re-Evolution plans and calling them "A disgrace of mankind." He was also banned from the town of Itex for unlawful acts against the governor. There is a warrant out for the man's arrest and a reward of $1,000,000 to anyone who has any leads to the arrest of Dr. Lyons."

"A hobby of Dr. Lyons is bird watching," Angel through in.

"Sooo….he's a good guy?" Nudge asked, looking at me.

"Well if he doesn't like the crap that Itex is pulling over then I guess so. But he still came up with the ideas for creating us, thus making me hate him. But we're here because he's supposed to help us so maybe we should try to find him. I don't know how but-."

I cut myself off when I saw the figure of a man in the shadows of the doorway. "Maybe I can help."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry, kinda short. And late. Finals'll do that to ya. Hope you liked chapter six!- foreverandalwaysyours**


	7. Connections

I felt like throwing up. Or smashing my head into the desk and screaming, "Why, why, why, why, why?!" But instead I chose the much more composing and leaderly form of standing up in front of my Flock with my famous death dagger glare set on the man in the doorway.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

The man stepped out from the shadow and into the…less dark part of the room. I raised an eyebrow and glanced at him and then down at the computer screen and then back up to him. This couldn't be that easy…could it?

"Um…" I started. "Are you Dr. Lionel Lyons?" I asked. I heard a slight chuckle from Fang. The name was like a tongue twister and I was having trouble saying it at the same time as trying to have no note of childlike fear in my voice from the unexpected visitor. Then the man came right up to us and smiled.

"I am," he replied. "You must be Max."

"…Yeah. How do you know me? How do you know my name?"

The man smirked. "How do you know mine?"

"Touché."

Fang stepped out from behind me, taking the strip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Dr. Lyons. "We found this note and it said that we should come find you. That you could help us. We found it in West Virginia."

The man nodded and shoved the note into his pocket. "Very good. I did send you the note. And I can help you."

"Help us?" I asked. "Why do you want to help us? It says here on your profile that you _created_ us. That you came up with the idea of our existence. You work for Itex. Everyone in Itex wants us dead. How can we trust you?" Yes, yes. I need to know specifics before I decide to go along to some freak show's lab for experiments. I like to make sure that I'm making a fair trade. You know, like my well- developed, high powered, mutant mind for a chocolate milkshake. Now THAT'S a fair trade.

"I did come up with the ideas for the human-avian and lupine-hybrids," Dr. Lyons started. "But I didn't create you. I drew out the blueprints, if you will, and showed them to a close friend of mine. I told him that if anything should happen to compromise the existence of Itex, to create the designs for help to save Itex."

I drew a blank. What? He wanted to create us to _save _Itex? Did he know this whole shebang was going to happen? "Whoa there, Mr. Smarts. What are you talking about? If something happened to Itex you wanted to save it? You wanted _us_ to save it? Where are you going with this?"

The man sighed. "Where are the rest of your friends? I think this would be easier to explain to all of you."

--

I assure you I was a little skeptic on following up with this guy's plan, especially since we had just met the guy but I couldn't refuse all the food you could eat and heating. So I took the doctor up on the offer. We all sat around on old and tattered couches around a short table eating sandwiches. It turns out that Dr. Lyons lived in this really big mansion thing that his friend gave him as a safe house. I'm guessing because of his bad reputation. This place hadn't been renovated in what seemed like a decade.

"So when I started working for Itex," he started once we were all being fed, "I wanted to make a difference in genetic engineering. I wanted to be known for something. I guess it's every scientist's dream to one day find the cure for cancer or come up with the next big thing and I thought that it was my purpose in this field to become a huge success. But one day while I was in a meeting, my boss had declared that the director of Itex had some big plans. That he wanted to create a new world without sickness or pain. A _perfect_ world with super humans who could outlive the currently existing human race."

"Hold up," Iggy interrupted. "Max actually _met_ the director of Itex and from what I hear, he sure isn't a _he._ Wasn't the Director saying she was your mom?"

I nodded. He had a point. Flaw number one in this story. I'm keeping track to find signs of a crazy lie.

"Yes. The Director _now_ is a female. But when I first started working there was a different Director. His name was Mr. Trueblood. But anyway, his plans were for, what I know you have heard of by now, the By-Half Plan and the Re-Evolution Plan. He's the one who sat down and planned this whole thing out. It was then I knew that my purpose wasn't to make a big appearance in this career. It was to save Itex from destroying the world. As a project, all assigned scientists, like me, were supposed to come up with a type of super human for the new world. So I took the opportunity to create a super human who could withstand just about anything and help me with my mission to stop Itex. I came up with two different sketches; the human-hybrid and the human-lupine-hybrid."

"So you originally created us to help Itex? Then what went wrong? Why are the Erasers used to do bad things and why are they all getting retired? And why are they retiring us? And better yet, why didn't you stick around to help with the project?"

"I told a friend of mine about my thoughts of the new plans. He took my thoughts, twisted them and reported them to the governor of the City of Itex saying that I was going to abuse my powers of creation to take over the city, the company and eventually the world. So I was immediately fired and a warrant was sent out for my arrest."

"No wonder Itex doesn't like you," Fang said. "You acted against them. Like us."

Dr. Lyons nodded. "Exactly. And after I was fired, I met up with my partner in this project and gave him my secret blueprints for the human and human-lupine-hybrids. I told him that if anything should happen to Itex, that if they carried out with this project of theirs, that he should create these two types of super humans and raise them to try to save Itex. This was back in 1990. My partner replied back to me a month later saying that he had found some people willing to help him out with the project. He said that he knew a doctor in Arizona who was willing to give an egg and later met with a single mother who was willing to let him adopt her baby. He kept updating me every time he had a new child for the experiment. I felt awful doing this to innocent children, but we didn't really have any other choice. That man, my friend, was Jeb Batchelder."

Suddenly everything was starting to make sense. Everything was starting to fall into place. For my whole life Jeb had been terribly protective over the six of us and I had no idea why. I didn't know why he acted the way he did after I found out what had really happened to him when he disappeared. I didn't know why I was supposed to save the world from Itex. But now I did. It was because of the man in front of me. Dr. Lionel Lyons from Wales. Dr. Lionel Lyons who came up with the idea of us to save the world. He wasn't some sicko. He didn't want to have this project. He did this to save the world. This put a whole new spin on things.

"But what about the Erasers?" I asked, returning to my hateful nature. "You haven't answered my question to why they are the way they are."

The Answer Man shook his head. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong there. Someone could have gotten a hold on the sketches and created them for the purpose of Itex. There's a number of possibilities. And the reason why they're being retired is because of life span and not being perfect enough for Itex. But you six…I'm not quite sure why they want to get rid of you. The only people who know that this was my idea is me and Jeb. I don't have any idea on that one. But I do know one thing, Max."

I cocked my head as Dr. Lyons reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black device with a red button on it. I was about ready to fly the heck out of here if he decided to blow the joint up. But once he pressed the button I froze. My breath nearly left me. I stared at Dr. Lyons with a little bit of shock, horror and…relief.

_"You need to save the world, Max. I can help you. I've been helping you and guiding you for some time now and I sent you that person from Itex in West Virginia as a message for you to come here because I have some really specific instructions for you now."_

I couldn't move. I saw Dr. Lyons lips moving but I couldn't hear his thick Welsh accent. And even stranger, I could hear him through my ears and through my _head_. I couldn't tell if the voice coming from outside and inside was male or female, human or machine. All I heard was…the Voice.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, yeah. Sort chapter. But it's got a ton of important info in it! So if you didn't catch all of that, go back and read it again. Jeez I sound like my Bio teacher…- foreverandalwaysyours**


	8. The Voice

I shook my head and laughed. "No, no, no, no." I said. "Nuh-uh. No way. _You're_ the Voice? That stupid little blabbering schizophrenic voice in my head?"

Dr. Lyons looked a little taken back by my comment. But what the heck? If he were the Voice this whole time then _why_ couldn't he have just told me to come see him in the first place!? That could have saved the Flock a butt load of trouble!

"Why didn't you tell me!!!" I shouted.

"Because, Max," he explained. "I wanted to see how far you could get on your own. I wanted to see if I had to take other actions to stop Itex. And you were doing rather well as far as I could tell until you made an unexpected stop at Dr. Martinez's house and got that chip removed."

I stared at him. Creeper. How did he know about that? "You wouldn't have anything to do with that chip…would you?"

Dr. Lyons nodded. "Indeed I did. I used that chip to track you and see where you were so I could guide you in the right direction. Have you noticed that ever since you got the chip removed my instructions have been more _vague_?"

I opened my mouth to rebuttal but what he had said made perfect sense. I hated that. So it was my fault that we were in this position? That Itex wasn't shut down yet? It was because I wanted that thing out so bad that we wound up here in this tight spot instead of relaxing with the world saved? I felt like smashing my head into the nearest wall. If I had known that I could have avoided quite a few _very awkward _moments.

"So if you press that button your voice changes and goes into her head?" Gazzy asked, intrigued.

"Yes," Dr. Lyons simply responded. "All you have to do is speak loud enough for the microphone to pick up your voice while pressing the red button."

Gazzy smirked. "Don't _even_ think about it," I warned him. I really meant it. The last thing I needed was some crazy eight-year-old playing mind games with me. I already had some old Welsh guy and a mind controlling six-year-old doing that. Any more of it and I'd need a mental hospital. If I wasn't to that point already.

"Okay, okay. You're the Voice. You implanted the chip. You created us. You're against Itex. So…why did you call us here? Couldn't you have just let us continue on our trip and let us be?" I asked.

"No. I need your help here. I have a mission for you that doesn't involve Hawaii."

I sighed. I was _way_ excited for that! Warmth, peace, sun…no ice or freak storms. Now we were stuck in Kansas of all places.

"I need you to help me take on Itex. I haven't been inside one of their labs since I've worked there and they've changed everything. But I know you guys have been inside recently. I know the basics of the buildings from the outside but I need you to get in. I need some information in that lab about the Re-Evolution and By-Half plans."

"Wait a minute," I said. "You said that I had to destroy the _hydra_. Remember that? And I did. I thought that meant I couldn't go around destroying all Itex buildings."

"You're right," Dr. Lyons agreed. "But day by day, this Itex is getting more and more powerful. So that's my mission for the six of you. I need you to destroy this Itex. Once that's done, you're off to Hawaii."

I raised an eyebrow. I had just met this guy. I wasn't too jumpy on the whole trusting thing yet. He needed to prove himself first. But if it'll help shut down Itex, I guess I could give this a try.

"Okay. Say we do help you with this plan. What are _you_ going to do? How will you help with this?"

"I'll help you out when you're in there if you need any instruction. Voice. Remember?"

I nodded. Yeah, I remember.

--

So, of course, we agreed to help this Dr. Lyons guy. And as a "thank you", he let us sleep in his home. Well, I can't quite argue with that. I can't lie; I've missed having a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to use to take nice long, hot showers. There was just one thing missing: Mom. I sighed. There was a knock on my door. Fang. Speaking of mothers…

"Do you think she'll be okay?" he asked. I had never seen Fang so upset and protective before. Well besides when he's defending the Flock, but that's the Flock. This was some lady who he had only known for a few hours. A woman who was apparently his mother. I sat up on my bed and motioned for Fang to sit down. He took a seat next to me.

"Fang, of course she is."

"You're lying," he said rather bluntly. "You're only saying that because you want me to feel better. Max, Itex is going after her because of what happened. They know she's involved and that she met us. They've probably already got her by now."

Uh…no problem? You're welcome for the support? Any time, old buddy? Nooooo. Not at all.

"Fang, come on. You can't get all depressed over this. She'll be okay. Besides, she's related to you isn't she? She'll tough it out."

"Yeah, but I was enhanced with bird DNA and a bunch of other superhuman crap. She's…_normal_."

I let out a deep sigh. He was being so…so…emotional. It was weird. Fang. Emotional. Worried to death about his mother. Maybe she really wasn't his mother. Just some lady who looked freakishly like Fang and had the same story of adoption as his mom did. Yeah. That's it. Then he'd have nothing to worry about. But then he still wouldn't know who his mom was and that may upset him even more. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Whatever. Just…forget about it. So what do you _really_ think about this Dr. Lyons plan?"

I stared at him. If we weren't supposed to be serious and focused right now, I'd be having a serious chat with this boy.

"Well I think that we need to take a shot. Try and take down this branch of Itex and see what happens next. We don't really have much time left. They're getting closer to their whacky plans every day."

"How come you're so trusting all of a sudden?"

How come you're so emotional and inquisitive all of a sudden?

"What?" I asked. "Well…what am I supposed to do? You're the one who's been pushing me to take some chances here. So I'm taking a chance. This could turn out either really good or really bad. In my mind I'm not quite sure which is worse though. I mean, flying off to Hawaii and possibly getting trapped or getting trapped here where we know our surroundings. He did give us a tour after all. And if anything happens, we can all meet in the storm cellar."

"I guess-."

Fang was interrupted by a knock on the door. It opened slowly and more light spilled into the room followed by our topic of discussion, Dr. Lyons.

"Good, you're still awake. I need to talk to you about something, Max."

I raised my eyebrows. "Talk away."

"I need to go back to the City Hall to pick up some important documents on Itex. I need you to stay here and watch over the Flock."

Uhhh…like I'd leave them?

"Also," he continued, "there's supposed to be a storm coming. I just got word. So tomorrow we may be spending a great deal of time in that storm cellar. Do you remember how to get there?"

Fang and I looked at each other and then back at the doctor. We both nodded.

"Okay. I'll see you in a couple of hours. I won't be more than that. And please, please be safe. I'm not going to be there to help you, Max, so if you get in any danger, you're on your own."

I gave the man a thumbs-up. "I think I can manage."

And with that, he was gone. Truthfully, I'm not sure if I could manage. I was so used to hearing that Voice in my head that I'd feel somewhat lost without it. I've known the feeling and it's not all that great. But I knew it'd be back if anything did happen to us. And I could manage with just my Flock. We'd just have to work a whole lot harder. But what if something happened to _him_? That's something I hadn't thought of. It's a disgusting feeling that started rising in the pit of my stomach. And the worst part is:as soon as Dr. Lyons shut that front door behind him, I knew we were on our own. I felt like throwing up and felt light headed. The Voice was gone.

* * *

**A/N: SORRY, SORRY, SORRY! A million apologies that I haven't updated in almost…a month. But I honestly just have not had the time. Sooooo…here's another chapter. Hope it's alright!- foreverandalwaysyours**


	9. Goodnight and Goodbye

"Goodnight," I whispered back. I placed a kiss on Angel's head before walking out of the room and closing the door quietly behind me. It had been a day since Dr. Lyons left and it didn't look like he was going to be back any time soon. And if things weren't weirder, Fang and I had heard more reports of melting people on the news which meant that Itex was whipping up a whole tone of these weirdos. If they couldn't get more sadistic.

I started wandering down the hallway towards my room and was stopped by a figure in my doorway. I switched on my hall light and found Iggy leaning up against the threshold. I raised an eyebrow.

"We need to talk," he said. I rolled my eyes and motioned him into my room. I sat on my bed and leaned up against the wall and waited for him to talk. "Something's been up. Something that you and Fang aren't telling me…or the rest of the Flock." He paused waiting for me to spill some story but I stayed silent. "Max, come on. You can't hide it. Neither of you can. It's too big."

I rolled my eyes. "Iggy, you and Angel already know. Don't you? Remember this?"

The boy let off a slight laugh. That made me angry. "I don't mean _that_. There's something else. I know you two left that night we were at the hotel. I heard you two arguing in the hallway. Something about a little girl? Was it the same little girl you found in that super market? The one with the mother from Itex?" I sighed. Did I really have to explain this? "And I heard something on TV about a follow-up report. They said that two teenagers found a little girl at Safeway in Charleston and brought her to the hospital. What did you guys _do_? And what's with all the reports of people, of all things, melting? Does that have to do with what happened?"

"Oh, God, Iggy. We didn't hurt her if that's what you're thinking. I've already told you this, when Fang and I went to Safeway, a little girl came up to us saying that her mother was dead and she needed help. So we went out and found her mom in a van. Fang checked the back of her neck and it had an expiration date. She's from Itex. So we called her house phone and told they guy who picked up what happened and left the kid in the van. But later that night Fang came to me and said something wasn't right and-."

"You went back?" I nodded. "Are you crazy? Do you want us all to get caught by Itex?"

"Iggy, they don't know it's us!"

"The ashes of the burnt down van spelled out _your_ name!"

"They would have anyway if we were there or not! It's not _my_ fault!"

"And I'm guessing that that doctor lady getting kidnapped by Itex and brought to Missouri wasn't your fault either!"

"What?" I blinked. A doctor getting kidnapped by Itex and brought to Missouri? That couldn't be Dr. Taylor…could it? Fang would freak. "What was her name?"

"Dr…Thomas? No…Tyler?"

"Taylor?"

Iggy's face light up and he snapped. "Yeah, Taylor. You know her, don't you?"

"She was the lady who we brought the kid to. She called the police about the whole thing after we left. If I had known that Itex would snatch her there's no way I would have done that. Iggy, this isn't our fault. The car would have melted anyway and if it weren't for us, the little girl could be dead, too."

"Yeah but thanks to you, Dr. Taylor is probably dead. All I'm saying is try and keep yourselves under the radar. Remember that plan? Who came up with that again? Right! It was _you_."

I groaned. "Okay, okay. I get it. I'm sorry. If we had known this would happen we wouldn't have done it. Look, once we're done here, we'll go and see what's happening in Missouri."

Iggy shook his head. "In my opinion, that's what you shouldn't do. You're gonna get caught, I just know it."

Iggy left before I could protest. Maybe he was right. But this lady…Fang's "mom"…I felt horrible. Once we were done here we were going to Missouri.

--

"_One, two, three, four_," I counted. Then I saw the flash. Four seconds. It was getting closer. I lay on my bed silent as I listened to the winds and thunder sound closer to our safe house. I closed my eyes and inhaled deep and silent. Then I slowly let the breath out. My ears started picking up the faintest sound of the pitter-patter of rain fall on the road and house. Another clap, louder than the others. The window shook slightly. That's when I heard a tiny knock on my door. I sat up straight and looked over to the entryway. I was expecting to see Angel or maybe Gazzy. Not Fang. He came in slowly and stepped over the two sleeping dogs on the floor, and like a shadow, sat down beside me.

"You're not scared, are you?" I whispered jokingly.

A faint smile appeared on the boy's face as he shook his head. "No," he replied. "I couldn't sleep though so I was downstairs watching TV." Fang paused looked up at the ceiling before looking back at me. "I heard an update about what happened in Charleston."

My heart froze. Did he know what Iggy and I knew? "And…" I waited.

"The reporter said that some scientists asked Dr. Taylor to come over to Missouri to have some questioning done," he said grimly.

I knew it was Itex. They really had found her. And with the way they run, there probably won't be much hope for this lady. There is no way Itex would let their secret about human genetic engineering slip into the eyes of the public. Not with it being illegal and all. That would just screw over their whole By-Half Plan. Though that would be the idea, right? I sighed and looked at Fang.

"I'm sorry. I wish there was something we could do. I mean, if she is you mom then-."

"She _is_ my mom, Max," Fang interrupted. "And I need to help her before Itex destroys her."

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about this. If Fang left, then he would have broken his promise about never leaving us again. And he'd probably end up not returning which meant we'd have to go after him. And besides, there was the makings of a tornado headed our way. If Fang wasn't killed by Itex, the tornado would take care of that.

"Look, Fang; I know you care about this lady and I know you want to help but be practical. At the moment, we can't afford to go after this lady. It's too risky. There's a tornado coming for us outside and there's no way I'm letting you go out there alone. Let's just wait a couple of days until things calm down and then we can all go together. Okay?"

I got no response, no glare, no pout, no sigh…nothing. Fang just sat there on my bed and stared out in front of him. If he didn't move soon I knew that I'd be able to just see right through him. There was another crash of thunder and I heard the rustling of bedding followed by hurried feet down the hallway. I wasn't surprised to see both Angel and the Gasman standing in the hall, peering into my bedroom. I motioned for them to come in. Fang and I stood up and allowed the siblings to shuffle under the covers.

"Max?" Angel asked. I knelt down to the bed; face-to-face with the little girl. "Is it just a thunder storm?"

I smiled and stroked Angel's hair. "No, sweetie. Look, I'm going to go wake up the others. Fang will stay here with you two, okay?"

She nodded and I eyed Fang. He gave me a thumbs-up sign and I left the room. First I moseyed over to Nudge's room. I gently shook her awake. I looked over at her alarm clock. It was seven in the morning.

"Nudge. Nudge, sweetie, wake up."

The girl sat up and looked at me with tired eyes. "What's happening? Is someone here?"

"More like some_thing_," I replied. "Go into my room and make everyone follow you downstairs and into the living room. I need to go get Iggy." Nudge nodded quickly and we were off.

--

It was only about five minutes later that we were all in the living room. Well "we" minus Fang. He said he was gathering supplies. The winds outside were horrible and I could feel the tornado getting closer. My heart raced more than ever. I looked around the house. The power had gone out and the rest of the Flock was huddled together on the couch, preparing for the worst. In the meantime I was pacing back and forth and Fang was upstairs. I heard his feet on the wooden steps and I ran to the other room. He had on a backpack and a coat.

"And where do you think you're going?" I demanded. Fang didn't respond. My eyes widened. "Oh no you don't." I stood in front of the door, hoping he wouldn't. "You're not going anywhere. Can't you wait?"

Fang shook his head. "She's my mom and she's in trouble and I'm the one who got her in trouble. If we hadn't brought that kid to the hospital she wouldn't be in this mess. I've gotta help her somehow."

"And do what? Take her back with you? You can't help her, Fang. Not right now. We need a plan. I'm sorry."

Fang tried to shove me out of the way but I grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the door and shoved him against the wall. The winds were getting louder, the storm closer. I grabbed his shoulders, pinning him against the wall.

"Don't."

"You can't change my mind. I'm already going."

I looked him in the eye. I couldn't change his mind? I doubted that. He shifted a bit to get out but I shoved him back onto the wall. Then I did something I thought I'd never in my life do. I leaned forward with all my might and kissed him on the mouth. I shut my eyes tight and wrapped my arms around his neck tightly, not wanting to let go. He tried to say something but that only made me kiss harder. He wasn't going anywhere. He sighed and wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me as close to him as he possibly could. His lips moved with mine and he seemed determined. Then he suddenly broke off and I gasped.

"I'm sorry," was all he said before he pushed me away and ran out the door, taking off into the blackened sky. I ran out after him, knowing it'd be stupid to fly after him right now.

"You promised!" I screamed with all my might. "Just remember that, Fang! You promised!"

I gritted my teeth and stormed back into the house slamming and locking the door behind me. I wiped oncoming tears of anger and depression from my eyes and with determination walked back into the room where the rest of my friends were.

"Okay!" I shouted. "We need to get into the storm cellar and stay there until this damn tornado passes! Then…I don't know yet but just go!"

Everyone squirmed and followed my instructions. We went out the back door and down into the underground cellar that Dr. Lyons had shown us. Down there was a bunch of food and water so I knew we wouldn't go hungry during all of this. I slammed the wooden door tight and latched it. I felt like Dorothy. Then I climbed down the ladder and leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths. Angel came up and tugged on my sweatshirt.

"Where's Fang? Aren't you going to let him in?" she asked, very worried.

I looked up to see a bunch of scared eyes turned towards me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to go after Fang. How the hell could he go off like that after promising never to leave us again? I had had it with him. He blew it and when I saw him next I was gonna let him know.

"He's…" I started. How could I tell him that he left us? That we might not even see him again. I almost choked up. "He's looking for shelter for us," I lied. "He's going to look for a new place for us because there's no way this old house'll make it through this tornado. He'll be okay, though. He just went to find some safety. We'll catch back up with him once the storm is over."

I saw looks of relief on the Flock's faces. All except for one. Angel looked up at me and looked like she was about to cry. _He's gone, isn't he?_ She asked in my mind. I closed my eyes and held my breath, my lips tightly together. She was right. Fang was gone and there was no way he was going to survive this storm alone. I heard a cry from Angel. I knelt down and held her tight. Gazzy came over and placed a hand on his sister's shoulder.

"What happened?" he asked.

I held my breath and hugged the girl tighter. If the tornado and Itex didn't kill Fang, boy I was sure going to.

* * *

**A/N: Whoo! Another chapter!!! So soon? Yes. I was gonna post this on Sunday but....yeah you probably know why I didn't. I may not update for a while again. I have carpal tunnel in my right hand and I have a brace. So hang in there. It'll take me a while to type with only one hand. I'll make it a good chapter though!- foreverandalwaysyours**

**See that button that review button down there? I dare you to press it.**


	10. Kryptonite

**A/N: Another long one. Yes, my wrist is still hurt. But I got a microphone!!! Now I can speak into the computer and it writes it for me. I love it. SOOOO much easier. Kind of weird talking it out though, I feel like I'm a voice actor or one of those people who record the audio books. Really strange. Hope it's alright. **

**Also- thank you all sooooooooo very much for all the reviews! You're amazing. - foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

It had been ten minutes since I heard any wind and I took a chance and opened the door to the cellar. I looked up to see blue skies. It was really weird. One second it was pitch black and now it was light out. I had almost forgotten that it was only about one or two in the afternoon. Overall I think the storm lasted about six hours. But now the storm was over and it was time for me to set out on my quest for Fang. It was going to take a while, he had a six hour head start and I hadn't even left yet. And I had to get some stuff prepared.

I motioned for everyone to come out and inspected the house. Some of the tiles on the roof were gone and a huge tree had landed in front of the house. It looked shaken up with quite a few broken windows but for the most part it was fine. We all got inside and I took a pack out of the hall closet and started filling it with some clothing and food. The Flock could stay here until I found Fang. No one knew we were here anyway.

"What are you doing?" Iggy asked. I jumped, his presence surprised me. I kept filling my bag.

"I'm gonna go see if Fang is okay." That was the truth. I was. But in a way it was still kind of lying. I felt bad for not cluing the whole gang in but that would just start a fight.

"He's not really looking for shelter, is he?" Iggy asked, catching me off guard. "Wait…he didn't go off to Missouri did he? Damn it!"

By this time everyone was in the kitchen, probably wondering the same things. It was time to spill. I couldn't lie my way out of this one.

"Okay, look," I began. "The day we found that girl in the store we went back after everyone was asleep and took her to the hospital. There we met Dr. Taylor. She told us about how she had given up her son at age seventeen to a man who said that he would take her son to an orphanage. Well, the man was Jeb and he didn't. He took the boy to the School."

"Is Dr. Taylor Fang's mom?" Gazzy asked. I nodded knowing I was going to regret this the moment Fang found out everyone now knew.

"He wanted to go help her. So I'm going after him."

"What about us?" Nudge chimed in. I turned around and looked at them all. They looked almost as depressed about the situation as I was.

"While I'm gone, Iggy's in charge."

"You mean you're leaving us here?" Gazzy wined. "But we should go with you! We're a Flock remember?"

I nodded. The kid had a point. "Yes, Gazzy, but I need to sort this out with Fang alone. I'll come back as soon as I can, I promise. And if something happens…go to my mom's house okay? And then try and get a hold of me. Is that clear?"

I saw nods come from my friends as I zipped up my backpack. I stuck my fist out and everyone tapped mine and I took off out the door. I hoped that Fang was alive because if he wasn't…well it'd be hard for me to kill him for leaving us behind.

--

It was dark when I decided to land for the night. I wasn't exactly sure where I was but I knew I was getting close. I could feel it. I landed in a back parking lot of some old gas station. I looked around. There was as bunch of trees just off the side of the road. I decided to hide out in one. I picked the one in the middle and the highest branch up that I could get without being noticed by the occasional midnight walker. I closed my eyes. I could really have gone for some advice from the Voice but Dr. Lyons was nowhere to be known. He was gone. Probably back in Kansas at the Itex facility.

I sighed. Fang. He was so stupid…so stubborn. I hated him for doing this. He promised that he'd never leave again. He promised so many times. And then he just up and broke it. Well that was it. I took a chance and let him in and I got hurt. That's the last time I'd do that.

I shifted a little on the branch I was on. I couldn't sleep. I was about to close my eyes and rest when something caught my attention. Something that I had seen before. Something shimmering across the sky, flying like a comet. It was a shooting star. I thought of what Dr. Lyons had told me. I was supposed to wish on it. Like that had done any good before. Then I thought about it a little more. No one had been attacking us. We had gotten some rest at Dr. Lyon's house. But now we were on the move again. Well at least I was. I closed my eyes. I wished that Fang was alright. I wished that he'd find Dr. Taylor. I wished that Dr. Taylor really was his mom so that he could find comfort in knowing who she was. I wished that the kids back in Itex, Kansas would make it safely. I wished…I wished Fang were here. I wished he hadn't had left. I wished I wouldn't have to lose him.

_Please, don't leave me. I pray you'll always stay. 'Cause we, we have been best friends. Don't let it end._

I played the words that Fang had sung to me the night I learned about the stars over and over in my head. If I could have any wish come true, anything in the world…I don't care about Itex, I don't care about the world, I don't care that the human race is gonna be destroyed. If I had one wish…it was that. And whenever I saw a shooting star, that would be my wish…my prayer.

--

Fang opened his eyes and took in the new scenery around him. It was a large, dark metal room. The only light shone in through the little window on the door where outside he could see bleach white walls and Whitecoats pass by every now and then with test tubes and various experiment materials. He had done it. He had made it to Itex in Missouri. Only he didn't get there the way that he had planned. Now he was in some room in a lab waiting for the worst. And there had been no signs of Dr. Taylor anywhere.

_This is just great_, he thought. _How am I gonna get out of this?_ Fang looked around the cell like room. There was nothing there he could use to his advantage. Not unless he could rip off a piece of the metal wall and slam it over the head of the next Whitecoat that entered the room. There wasn't anything he could do. Not this time.

Then the door opened and a tall man with a white lab coat and a clipboard entered. He came in, leaving the door open, and stood in front of Fang. Fang stood up a few feet away and looked at the man, expressionless.

"We've been waiting for you, Fang," said the man. "We knew you'd show up. But we hoped that you'd have your little friends with you. You left them, didn't you? Not a wise decision on your part. But that's not a problem. We've sent out reinforcements to track down the rest of you." The man paused and flipped through some papers on his clipboard as a woman walked in and stood next to the man.

"Looks like everything is going almost accordingly," she said. "Once we get the girl here we'll start the questioning. Then we'll bring out the doctor and let things go from there. But we need to have all of the information compiled by Friday when the investigators get here, Max or no Max."

"Hmm?" the other scientist asked. "Oh, yes, by Friday. Not a problem, Sheryl. We'll have all the information we need by Friday."

Sheryl nodded and left the room. The man looked up from his clipboard and looked up to Fang.

"Now if you will please follow me, we need to run some tests as a follow-up. No one has seen you in a very long time, Fang. Now that we've got you, we need to make sure what we're dealing with. And since Dr. ter Borcht didn't seem to do any accurate testing, we need to play a game of catch-up."

Fang cringed at the name. Dr. Roland ter Borcht. The idiot scientist from back at the School who they outsmarted. Or out-annoyed. Fang followed the scientist knowing what was ahead. Pain, needles, running, the feeling of a lab rat. As he followed the man, Fang looked out of a window and something caught his eye. He closed his eyes for a moment and whispered a silent prayer. A wish.

--

The scientist led Fang to a large room in the back of the lab. But it didn't look like a normal testing area like at the School. It looked like the place that he and Max brought the little girl to in West Virginia. Like a place where a doctor would give a checkup.

"First things first," the doctor said. "Do you know how tall you are exactly? Weight? Any physical attributions that we should know about?" Fang stayed naturally silent. "Okay…just think of this as a doctor checkup. I'm not here to test you. Just here to make sure you're functioning normally."

_Like that's possible with bird DNA woven into my human system_, Fang thought.

When the scientist realized that he was going to get nowhere fast with this approach, he took charge. "Fine, then. Please step on that scale over there."

Fang did as he told. He looked at the wall and watched the numbers of the scale range up from 00.00 to 101.30. The scientist quickly wrote the number down on his clipboard.

"Looks like you've gained a whopping one pound since you were here last. Good. You're getting stronger. The boss will be glad to hear that. Maybe you guys will with last the By-Half after all. Okay, please step under the large ruler you see on the wall over there."

Fang followed the direction the scientist was pointing by the ruler. The scientist followed over and measured the height of the Flock member and jotted the number down. He then had Fang sit down as he took his pulse and breathing patterns. Fang sighed. This was going to be a long night.

--

It was late the next day when I finally reached Itex. The building was a little bit larger than the School but smaller than the complex we had dealt with in Germany. I knew Fang was there already I just had to find out where. And I needed a plan to get in there. I couldn't just walk in. That would be suicide. They probably have wanted posters all over the walls with my picture on them. WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE- MAXIMUM RIDE. I could be on the next broadcast of _America's Most Wanted_. Well then I could check off the box on my life goals for becoming a TV star. Sweet.

I scanned the backside of the building. It didn't look like they had any Erasers or Flyboys here which was a relief. But it was also kind of depressing. Man, I miss the glory days. I was about to move my position when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I tried to yank it free but was stopped by another hand grabbing my arm and twisting it behind my back. I winced and kicked backwards as hard as I could. I heard someone groan in pain and let go. I took off. I ran across the line of shadows created by the trees. I looked back. The guy who I had kicked was gone. I paused for a moment and sank into the shadows. I heard a rustle in the trees and looked up. Before I could even think about flying out of here, I was staring out of metal bars and sitting in a tan plastic cage. Another dog crate. Fantastic.

I rocked back and forth, trying to tip the cage so I could roll down the hill and try to get out but two guys came over and picked up the crate and started carrying me towards the white building. I groaned. The things I got myself into for this boy.

As they brought me in the building, I memorized my surroundings. It was exactly like the School. This was going to be too easy. But then they brought me to a large metal door and into a room lined with metal walls and flooring. It was dark and hard to see but my eyes adjusted quickly. They opened the crate and threw me out. I landed on the floor with and oof and sat up. The men hurried out of the room and I got up. They left the door open. Idiots. I walked over to the entrance and took a step out before being rushed right back in by a man with a clipboard.

He was a little taller than me and had on a big white lab coat like all of the other scientists. Perfect, just what I needed. Another dose of needles and torture. I swear. Once I found Fang he was a dead birdie boy.

The man looked up from his clip board and smiled at me. "Max," he said with a warm voice. "We've been waiting for you. And perfect timing. We were just getting ready to send search teams out for you. I believe we have some tests we need to get caught up on."

"Wait," I said. "Let me make it easy for you. I can fly to super speeds, I can see amazingly in the dark, oh yeah…I have wings, I'm the leader and I can most likely outsmart you. There. I think your testing has been completed. Thanks for having me here. Beautiful joint you've got. Though I do recommend some color, the walls are pretty bland…and white. Want me to call HGTV? They'd have a blast at this place."

The man chuckled. "Well if you could give me your height, weight, blood pressure, breathing patterns, heart rate after 30 minutes of running and strength level then I'll think about passing you on all of your tests."

I thought for a moment. "Most likely under 100 pounds, height…taller than the average 14-year-old. My blood pressure is so high I think I'll explode because a certain flying freak boy made it boil again. My breathing is normal for a mutant freak and I can run for 30 minutes at a steady pace without too much difficulty. And my strength level is a lot more than yours can ever dream to be. There, done."

"Nice try. Come with me."

I followed the scientist to a room in the back that looked strangely like a doctor's checkup office. There he took my weight, height, blood pressure, all that good stuff. And for all of you who have to do this regularly, I'm sooo very sorry. I dunno what it is about people touching me but it just gives me the chills. Could be from all of the animal testing they've done to me over the years but you never know. It could be worse. I could be some mutant freak with bird DNA invested into my system.

After about an hour and a half of random tests that were more of a pain in the butt than actually physically painful, I was taken to a room where there were people standing around with notepads and pens and voice recorders. I stood in the doorway and stared at everyone. There was no way this would end well for anyone. I mean that for the poor reporters.

Then I looked over at a bunch of empty chairs in the front of the room. Well, almost empty chairs. One was filled by a six-foot-four black-winged traitor who just so happened to be named _Fang_. I glared at him. He stared right through the glare which just made me even madder. He had nerve. I stormed in the room and turned to the scientist.

"Could you give me and Fang about five minutes? I have some things I have to catch up with him on. After all I haven't seen him in almost a _day and a half_."

"I'm sorry, Max," the scientist said. "I can't do that."

I walked up to the man and shot an ice glare into his eyes.

"Give me five minutes. I promise I won't leave or escape or whatever. And the only thing I will break is possibly a limb off of that numbskull in the black over there." I motioned to Fang. The Whitecoat took a few steps back and cleared his throat.

"If you could all please give these two a brief moment," he said nervously.

I smirked as the reporters left and I slammed the door behind them. I turned on my heels and slowly walked towards my next victim.

"Max," he began. But that's all I was letting him say…for now.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" I screamed. "Fang, you _promised_! Remember? Because of you and you stupid-ass plan the rest of the Flock is stuck in a torn up house in the middle of a place called Itex, Kansas with fear and worry bubbling in the pits of their stomach! Are you happy now!? You made it here! And for what? To get us caught AGAIN! I told you to wait until we had a plan!"

Fang just stood there. He didn't look taken back or anything. He just stood there. Staring at me with that unreadable expression on his face. I wanted to smack him. We stood that way in silence for what seemed like forever.

"Max," he finally said in a hushed voice, "I know I upset you."

"No, you didn't upset me," I said. "Upsetting me would be waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me that you were hungry. Upsetting me would be pushing me out when I know something was bothering you. But this…leaving when you _promised_ not to and having me be in a relationship with you because of that promise is far BEYOND UPSETTING, Fang! It's…it's destroying! I trusted you! I finally gave in after _you_ pushed me for so long into this thing and you just left! And why? Because you wanted to find Dr. Taylor on your own even though I said we'd get a plan and help you! And the worst part is you never even cared, Fang! You just _left_!"

I stopped when I felt myself beginning to cry. Never in the world had I ever opened up like that to anyone. Not even Fang. And I wasn't even being happy. I was pissed. But it was his fault. And I couldn't believe it. Maybe taking chances isn't the best idea after all. Suddenly, Fang's eyes narrowed causing mine to widen a bit. Was he angry? What? He opened his mouth about ready to say something when the door opened and the Whitecoat walked in with the rest of the reporters. I took a deep breath and let it out slow before sitting down and putting a dulled expression on my face. Fang sat two chairs away from me, emotionless. The Whitecoat shut the door behind him before a woman walked in the door. Fang and I stared at her.

She was familiar yet…unfamiliar at the same time. She had long, thick black hair which was all messy and dull. Her face was paler than I remembered and she had dark circles under her eyes like she hadn't had sleep in weeks. She probably hadn't. The woman looked stripped of all dignity though she walked like she held all of the world's respect. I looked into her eyes. I found the same emotionless feeling as I did when I sometimes looked into Fang's eyes. But, just as Fang had, I saw a gleam of strength and power and the ability to hold her own. It was Dr. Taylor. It was Fang's mother.

She gasped when she saw us sitting in the room and sat in the chair between us. She sat up straight and tall and looked at the crowd of reporters before us like she could take them on easy if they tried anything. I looked to Fang and smiled. They both had the same expression. Then I turned to the crowd and glared.

"Well," the Whitecoat began, "looks like everything's in order, let's get this started." The man strode back and forth in the space between the tree of us and everyone else. It was like he was drawing the line between good and evil. Do you dare to cross the line? Well that depends. Do I want to be a murderer? I think not. "It was said by this here, Dr. Taylor, that a little girl around the age of six was dropped off at Charleston Medical Center in Charleston, West Virginia by two teenagers who were said not to be the child's parents." As the Whitecoat spoke, the reporters took notes and quotes. "It was reported that the girl was suffering from heat stroke from the car heater being too high for too long. Am I right so far, Dr. Taylor?" The doctor nodded and the reporters wrote the note down.

Then the Whitecoat walked towards me. "It was said that this child was found in the parking lot, or in the car, of the nearby Safeway and the mother was found dead. That is all the information that was given directly from Dr. Taylor to the police when this matter was investigated. But police also found something very strange. When they reached the van in the parking lot, they found that the person had melted- most likely a robot built by the family as a nanny."

I rolled my eyes. Anything to cover up their nasty human experimenting. The Whitecoat continued.

"When backups were called in, the van exploded. There was a metal box recovered. Sheryl?"

The man motioned to this "Sheryl" and she pulled out a metal box—the same one Fang had found. I suddenly became nervous.

"Sir in the black," he said motioning at Fang. "Stand up please." Fang remained seated. Way to be. The Whitecoat glared at Fang. "I said stand up!" Fang didn't move. Then the Whitecoat did something unexpected that no other Whitecoat had ever done…to any of us. He walked right up to Fang and socked him right in the nose. Fang held his face and winced as blood ran out of his nose. Dr. Taylor sat there wide-eyed at Fang.

"Why would you do such a thing?" she asked her voice shaky.

I got up and walked up to the Whitecoat and glared into his eyes. I took a quick glance at Fang. He had ripped off part of his shirt and held it up to his nose as Dr. Taylor helped him get cleaned up. Fang just watched me intently.

"They're just children," Dr. Taylor whispered.

"Just children?" the Whitecoat chuckled. "Really?"

"You'd better shut up before I level you, buddy boy," I threatened.

He smirked. "Why don't you show me that you can? In fact why don't you show everyone here what you can do? You are more than just a child, Maximum Ride. You are much, much more."

I clenched my fists about ready to pulverize the guy when I looked back at Fang. His nose had stopped bleeding and he was still watching me. I looked for some answer. An answer on what I should do. The more this situation became worse, the more I found myself turning to him for answers. It was almost like we had switched roles. I suddenly felt weak and small. I looked back at the Whitecoat.

"Wouldn't you like that?" I mocked. "Then we could tell everyone the truth. The truth about Ite-."

Before I could finish my sentence, the Whitecoat had me pinned up against the wall. His eyes were like daggers, ripping apart my every move. I had crossed into dangerous territory. Maybe I should cross the line. Go to the reporter's side. Ask the questions, make the interrogations. Make this guy sweat.

"You'd better not say a single word more if you know what's good for you. I'll have all three of you killed if you keep up on your little tangent." The man let go of me and shoved me against the wall. I hit it hard but stood standing, murder written across my face. He made his way back over to Fang. "What did the label say?" He asked. I stared at Fang. If he told then the city of Itex would be investigated immediately and they'd find the rest of the Flock.

"It said…" he started. He took a millisecond glance to me then stared into the Whitecoat's eyes. "It said…property of Itex."

Before the scientist could respond, Fang stood up and punched the guy in the face. Instantly he was on the ground holding his nose, blood everywhere. The reporters were still staring in shock at the situation. Fang grabbed Dr. Taylor's hand.

"Follow us," he said. "We can help you." The woman nodded, scared, and followed Fang and I out of the room.

Outside there were few scientists around but they all stopped what they were doing and stared at us. "You'd better keep moving if you don't wanna end up like the guy in there!" I screamed. The few people around all shared glances before scattering and the three of us raced out of the Itex complex. Once outside it was dark and we ran into the forest. Deep, deep into the forest. We ran for probably twenty minutes before Dr. Taylor stopped. She leaned over, putting her hands on her knees and breathed quick and hard.

"We're not safe yet," I told her. "We need to get out of here and to somewhere where they won't find us. I know just the place but we have to move quick. Fang, we're going to my mom's. Dr. Taylor, are you ready for the ride of your life?"

The doctor looked up at us as if we were crazy. And we probably were. We were also crazy about getting out of this hell pit. We had to go to where my mom was staying in Virginia. I backed up from the doctor and held my breath, contemplating if this was the right decision. I waited for the Voice. Nothing. I sighed and unfurled my wings. Dr. Taylor gasped and stared at me, wide-eyed. Fang took a step back and copied my motion.

"There's no time to explain," he said. "We just need to get out of here. I'll carry you."

Before a protest could be shouted, the three of us were up in the air and flying. _Well Fang, you got your wish,_ I thought. _Congrats. And now we're running…flying for our lives once again from Itex with a doctor from West Virginia with us. Hope you're happy._

--

We made a stop for the night in a small cave carved into a bunch of tall rocks on a beach. Once we landed, Fang set Dr. Taylor down. She just stared at us and our wings. Then she shook her head.

"That's it," she said. "I'm dreaming. I must be dreaming. Or I've gone crazy. Yes. That's it. I'm insane." She sighed and sat down next to the cave wall. Fang sat next to her. I sat in front of them.

"Sadly," I began, "you're not crazy. I've tried thinking that for 14 years only to come confusing the he…ck out of myself." I watched my language. "But there's something you need to know. Those people back there, the scientists, they're, well…crazy. Sick, disturbed, mental take your pick of word choice. They're all a bunch of nut jobs. A while back they had this idea that they could make a kind of super human. Us. Human-hybrids."

Dr. Taylor looked up at me with one eyebrow raised.

"We're 98 percent human, two percent bird," Fang explained. "When we were born, the scientists at Itex mixed avian DNA into our human DNA giving us height, strength, wings…and various other things."

Dr. Taylor looked up at the both of us. "Are there more of you?"

I nodded. "There's four others back in Kansas right now. Iggy, who's mine and Fang's age; Nudge who's eleven; Gazzy who's eight and Angel who's six. We've been together our whole lives. But we're not their only creations. They've made some weird and whacky other experiments but the only others to make it past birth are human lupines—part wolf, part human. We called them Erasers. They were used as executors and disciplinarians back at the Itex we grew up in we call the School. They were awful. And they could morph so they looked like normal people on the street."

"I never saw any of them where we were," Dr. Taylor noted.

Fang looked up at me, almost sympathetic. I knew what he was thinking.

"They were all expired," I explained. "They killed them all off because they were 'failures'. They killed off every last one of them including…including my brother, Ari Batchelder."

I swear that woman's neck almost snapped with how quickly she looked up at me. "Did you say Batchelder?" she asked. I gulped. I just had to mention the last name. I had forgotten she knew Jeb.

"Yeah…" I said. "And, yes, you know his—my dad. Jeb. You gave your son to him…right?"

Dr. Taylor nodded. "Yes! My son…do you think you could do me a favor, Max?" I nodded. "Take me to see Jeb? I want to know what he did with my baby. My child, I miss him so much." Dr. Taylor closed her eyes. "It would mean the world to me. You know what's crazy? I even wish that I'd find him again. Have you ever wished on a shooting star?"

I smiled and nodded. "Who hasn't?" she smiled back.

I looked to Fang. He looked almost scared. I wondered if he was going to tell her that he was her son. I smiled at him. He didn't return the gesture. He just got up and walked away. I looked back to the woman.

"Do you mind? I need to…catch up on some things with Fang in private. It'll only be a moment, I promise."

She nodded. "Take all the time you need."

I thanked her and followed Fang deep into the cave. He sat with his back turned away from the entrance, facing the wall of the cave. I mimicked his position.

"You're not going to tell her?" I asked.

Fang shook his head. "No. I don't think now is the time. I don't think any time is the right time. I mean, I'm glad that I know who she is and I'm glad that I met her but I could never tell her what happened to me. I think that would hurt her more than how it hurts now."

I listened to Fang intently. I had never heard him talk like this before. It was like a whole new side to him no one's ever seen. In the long years that I've known him never even once has he been so concerned about someone and so dedicated towards someone. It was nice to know that that one someone was his mother. That he wasn't angry or held a grudge. I think it was because of how amazing this woman really was. It was like someone had taken Fang and reversed his personality. Almost sensing my awe in this he quickly changed the subject.

"About earlier…" he started. That's when all of my kindness and peace turned into hatred and rage. I shot dagger eyes at him and started to stand up to walk away. I would have made a fly for it if Fang hadn't grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down. "You're not going anywhere. Not yet, anyway."

I almost laughed. "Yeah! Because I would _never_ leave someone who needed me when they asked me not to go! Because I would _never_ break a promise to the person I lo-." I quickly stopped myself and bit my tongue. What I was about to share was something that was not needed to be shared. I mentally kicked myself when Fang smirked. I knew he knew what I was going to say.

"You love me," he said, laughing. Now do you know why I don't express myself? It's because of people like Fang.

"I do not! I was gonna say people I…_loathe_." Horrible, horrible save.

Fang nodded. "Because I _love_ kissing people I hate," he said laughing again.

That was it. I got up and started away. I didn't need to be taking that. _He's_ the one who walked out on _me_. Again. After I thought I told myself that would never happen…again. Fang stood up and called out to me.

"I'm not the only one who broke their promise! You left too!"

I turned around and walked right back up to Fang and looked him straight in the eye. "I was coming to save your sorry butt, Mr. Impassible. Just remember that."

Fang glared right back at me mimicking my expression. "I was coming to save my _mother_, Miss Priss. Just remember that."

I sucked in a large amount of air and stormed back to the entrance of the cave. Inwardly I beat myself up for, once again, Fang being right on the money. I had left the Flock after I had promised not to. We split up when we had promised not to. I had no idea if they were in Kansas or with my mom and Jeb and that's what was killing me. That and the annoying disease in my side that hurt like none other also known as Fangitis. If I didn't die between those two lethal weapons I know that I'd be Superman. But until that point, I was standing face to face with my Kryptonite and I was losing strength by the second. I knew it was going to be a tough ride out of this one.


	11. Iggy in Charge

**A/N: Sorry it's been sooooo long! I was pretty good at updating before but now I'm kinda slacking. But today I thought up some pretty good ideas for later on and so I need to start writing again so I can write them, too. So here's chapter 11. Kinda short. Sorry 'bout that. I'll post some more soon. BTW: This chapter and the next one are both in the POV of Iggy. - foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

About ten or fifteen minutes after any wind or thunder had passed above us, I heard the cellar door open above me and waited for a weather report. The storm had come so suddenly and passed after what seemed like forever. I wasn't keeping track but I bet it was around five hours. I waited for someone to say that it was okay to leave this place. I'd leave on my own will if I knew it was safe but I didn't. I never did. So I had to rely on others, mostly Max. Only because she makes all the rules around here.

"Okay, guys," I heard. "We can probably go back in the house now. The storm looks to be gone."

I let everyone move out ahead of me before I climbed up the ladder and above ground again. I shuffled me feet around the ground. Ever step I took there was something else in my way. This tornado had probably blown all the trees across the neighborhood. The house sounded fine by what Max had said so at least we'd have a place to stay. I made my way to the door and walked in, stepping on what may have been a piece of the window. It's hard to tell when you can't actually see it. I felt my way into the kitchen and leaned against the counter trying to put this whole puzzle together.

We just hid from a tornado, this Dr. dude was gone for some weird reason (Max said it was because he went back to the City Hall) and hadn't returned yet and Fang had flown off to "find us shelter". Whatever that meant. I heard a door in the hallway close and Max come into the kitchen, opening the fridge. She started shuffling around and placing stuff in a bag she must've gotten from the hall closet.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I heard Max gasp a little. I guess she didn't know I was there which was almost stupid because I was right behind her. She may be a good leader but she's too jumpy. She needs to relax.

"I'm gonna go see if Fang is okay," she said. I wondered if it was the truth. It probably was but it probably was either a stretch or a very vague response. I picked vague.

"He's not really looking for shelter, is he?" I asked again. I wondered what the heck that kid could be doing out in a- wait- "Wait…he didn't go off to Missouri did he?" I knew it. "Damn it!"

I heard the rest of the Flock come into the kitchen, probably wondering the same things I was. She couldn't lie her way out of this one. Not with the situation being the way it was. Fang was gone and it didn't sound like Max knew exactly where.

"Okay, look," she began. "The day we found that girl in the store we went back after everyone was asleep and took her to the hospital. There we met Dr. Taylor. She told us about how she had given up her son at age seventeen to a man who said that he would take her son to an orphanage. Well, the man was Jeb and he didn't. He took the boy to the school."

I stood in shock. Did this mean that Fang had finally found his mom? If he had, I didn't want to know the outcome of this. With Fang being Fang, he'd probably go off and stay with his mom so he could get out of the way of Max. But weren't they…? Then why did he leave? I shook my head from confusion and waited for what was going to happen next.

"Is Dr. Taylor Fang's mom?" Gazzy asked. I waited for an answer from Max but heard none. Thanks for leaving the blind guy out again. Means a lot, it really does.

"He wanted to go help her. So I'm going after him." she said. Ahhh, there we go. Dr. Taylor is Fang's mom. And Max was going after them? This didn't sound like it was going well for any involved.

"What about us?" Nudge almost cried. I heard Max turn around. Her slight sigh meant she could read our depressed little bird-kid faces. She was leaving us again. Hadn't they both promised not to split apart again or was that just me imagining the whole cry-fest between Fang and Max after they got back from Germany?

"While I'm gone, Iggy's in charge." Nooooooo.

"You mean you're leaving us here?" Gazzy wined. "But we should go with you! We're a Flock remember?"

"Yes, Gazzy, but I need to sort this out with Fang alone. I'll come back as soon as I can, I promise. And if something happens…go to my mom's house okay? And then try and get a hold of me. Is that clear?"

There were nods and I heard Max zip up her bag. We all stuck out our fists and stacked them before Max gave all of us a final goodbye and left, slamming the door behind her. She didn't sound too happy. If Fang wasn't dead, he would be the moment Max found him. The situation was just getting worse and worse.

--

An hour had passed since Max left and I was getting bored. There was no electricity and no heat. So I was going crazy and I was freezing to death all at the same time. The only thing keeping me awake was the sound of Total telling Akila how much he loved her. It pissed me off. That damn dog will never learn that she _can't actually understand him_. He'll just sit there and talk to her all day and all night if he wanted to until someone says…

"Total, shut up," I mumbled. I heard a growl and paws click out of the room. I stretched out on the couch and closed my eyes to sleep. It had been a long day…long week and I was just wanting to rest.

"Iggy!!" I heard from the kitchen. My eyes quickly snapped open. Not that that really did anything but I guess it's what people call "human reaction"….or instinct. Or something that's supposed to be normal that none of us are even remotely close to having.

But anyway, I jolted up and quickly made my way to the kitchen, expecting someone's hand to be cut off by a knife or something. But what I found was much, much…more relieving.

"What happened?" I asked.

I felt two arms wrap themselves around my waist and hold on tight. It was Angel. She was crying. I just stood there for a moment before gently hugging her back. What would Max do? Angel never went to anyone else when she cried. Only Max. In fact, _no one_ came to me when they cried. But what did Max do when they cried to her?

I gently rubbed Angel's back and squatted down to her level. I straightened my eyes hoping that they were directed to hers. If they weren't, I knew she'd understand but that's a comfort thing, right?

"What's wrong, Angel?" I asked.

She sniffed really loud and let out a big dramatic final cry. It took all my strength not to even stifle out a small laugh.

"I miss her, Iggy."

_Her_? Oh…Max. She missed Max. Well what was I supposed to do about it? She's never cried about missing someone before. Not when Max, Nudge and Fang were gone; not when Fang, Gazzy and I were gone and not when Max and Fang were gone another time. Never. So why this time? And why to me?

"Uh…we all miss her, too," I managed to say. "We just…need to…stay safe and wait. She'll be back soon. So will Fang. And then we'll be moving again and off to a place where we can be safe. And warm. Remember Hawaii?" I got no response. She was probably nodding. "We'll all be going to Hawaii after this. Just…until Max and Fang get back just think about being in Hawaii with everyone. That sound good?"

"Uh-huh," I heard. Then her little arms tightened around my neck and hugged me again. "You're really bad at making people feel better. But that's why Max is the leader, right?"

I blinked. Did Angel really just say that? Jeez little kids could be so blunt and hurtful. I mean, it's not like I've actually comforted someone before. Give me a break.

"Good to know?" I responded before getting a kiss on the cheek. I stood off and heard skips of a little six-year-old down the hallway and up the stairs to the bedroom. I sighed and returned to my attempt of a nap. I wished Fang and Max would hurry their butts back here. I hate being the leader.


	12. Fire

**A/N: Okay, sorry for the wait. I've been caught up in being sick of writing due to the freaking WASL. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, I'm so, so very sorry. For those of you who don't: It's this lame ass test that us Washington (and I think Iowa and/or Idaho- can't remember) kids have to take. It's at a fourth grade level pretty much so it's pretty stupid. It's reading, writing and math. And if we don't pass and finish the passing requirements, we can't pass high school. So that's 13ish years of school down the toilet. But I'm done with it so whatevs. So here's chapter 12! BTWs: I get my MAX book tomorrow- sooo excited!**

* * *

The rain poured that night. And I couldn't sleep so I just stayed awake and listened to it on the roof and in the pots and pans inside various rooms where parts of the roof had been torn off from the tornado. I sighed. It was one of those nights where you just really wanted to sleep but there was no possible force that could make you even doze off for a while. At first I thought it was from the noise the rain was making that kept me up but then I started to notice something. I began to get this eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach like something really bad was about to happen. And when you're blind, I'll bet you the world that the feeling is automatically 10 times stronger than all you seeing people.

I switched my body on alert mode like I had known Max to do at times like these. After all, I was the "leader". Honestly, I don't know how Max put up with it. Always wondering how you're gonna get everyone off their butts in time to get the hell out before someone gets killed. I should start giving her a little more credit. I guess that conversation will have to wait itself out a while.

I finally started getting really twitchy and decided to roam the house. Not that I'd be able to _see_ that everything was okay, but I couldn't sit in bed any longer. I got up and creeped out the door, trying not to wake any of the others up. I tip-toed down the old stairs and into the wet smelling living room. I was about to finally convince myself that everything was old and I was just becoming paranoid when I heard something. I stiffened and stood as still as a shadow. I heard it again. It was a laugh. Not like a "haha" kind of laugh but a "doom" kind of laugh. You know, kind of like the feeling you get when you're watching (or in my case listening to) one of those Jason movies and you start hearing the creepy "hehe haha" thing in the background. The thing that makes you afraid to go on walks in the woods in the dark without some sort of weapon to fight back with. It's really nerve-racking.

I felt around the room until I found something that was easy for me to pick up and whack someone over the head with. I heard a door open. God, there was someone. I backed up against a wall in fear that someone would come up behind me with an axe or something, and I waited. I heard someone creeping into the kitchen and I heard someone go "shhh!". My heart raced. Now what? I couldn't see anything so I wouldn't be able to run up to anyone and knock their heads off very easily. All I could do was wait for them to come to me. I was about ready to find the window and smash it open and make a fly for it when I heard a scream from upstairs. It sounded like Angel.  
"What was that?" I heard a deep voice call out.

_Damn it_. I ran forward and flung the chair out in front of me, not knowing exactly where it went. Then I heard "God damn!" Score- I hit someone. I raced back up in the stairs only to run into someone at the very top. I fell onto my backside and grunted, preparing myself for a beating from whoever was up here.

"Iggy!" it was the Gasman. He quickly helped me up onto my feet.

"Okay, Gazzy, here's the plan. We need to get everyone out of here. There's some guys down stairs- probably robbers, I dunno how many- but we just gotta go."

"I know! There was a guy in Angel and Nudge's room."

I stood there and stared forward. "Where are the girls?"

"I told them to lock themselves in the bathroom. There's no window in there so I thought-."

I patted the kid on the back. When it came to the flock us "boys" had to step up and become "men".

"They're in the hall!" I heard from one of the rooms.

Gazzy grabbed onto my shirt and got behind me. What to do, what to do? The men came into the hall way. I could sense them right in front of us. Why weren't they coming? I sniffed and winced. What the hell was that smell? Almost on cue Gazzy replied with a quick "Wasn't me" and I was left guessing. It was starting to get pretty warm in here. There was a scream from the bathroom.

"FIRE!"

I could hear the Gasman start getting antsy. Fire? Without warning two more pairs of stomping feet came into the hallway and soon the four of us were racing down the stairs with two men behind us.

"What do they look like?" I asked. I needed some background here. Robbers?

"They're dressed normally," Angel said as we started making our way outside. I think everyone caught on that we were on our way to the cellar to work out an escape plan. After all, if these guys were robbers, they could take whatever and leave. It's not like we needed any of it. Besides, the house was probably gonna burn down anyway.

"And they kinda look like Erasers," Nudge added. "Only none of them transformed."

We made it to the cellar and everyone climbed in, me being last and latching the door. We all stood around as I ordered everyone to start filling the pack that was down here with food and supplies. We had to get out of here. That's when I remembered something. That awful smell, they look like Erasers when they're not morphed…there could only be one explanation for something so weird- Itex.

"Hey, did you girls smell somethin' weird?" I asked quickly.

"Yeah…" Nudge said. "Something weird. It started becoming warm and I started to smell something like burning rubber. But that might have just been from the house burning. What do you think caused the fire?"

I shrugged. It could have been a number of things really. Those creeps were in the kitchen. Just when I thought things were starting to get a little clearer, I heard a banging noise on the cellar door. It was probably the goons from inside. I panicked. How were we gonna get out of here? Angel came over and tugged on my shirt in total horror.

"What?" I asked.

"Total and Akila…" she said.

I slapped my forehead. Shoot. Those stupid dogs were still inside. I was gonna have to go get them.

"Okay, I'm gonna go out there and blast through that door and go get the dogs. I need you guys to start heading out of here."

"Where are we gonna go?" Gazzy asked.

"Go…go east. Towards Dr. Martinez's house. Like Max told you. But go out after me, got it?"

There was no response so I just imagined everyone nodding and started up the ladder. I held my breath, preparing myself and shook out my wings. I was really gonna blast outta here. With one swift motion, I slammed open the door and up into the sky, hitting something hard with my fist. I hoped it was someone's face. I started to hear burning noises and followed that direction. I could feel the heat getting closer and covered my head as I blasted through a burning part of the house.

I landed on the floor and instantly started choking on smoke. "TOTAL! AKILA!" I screamed. "GET YOUR BUTTS OUT OF HERE!" I heard a bark. Where were they? "Iggy?" I heard. It was Total. I made my way through the house, not sure where I was or how I was gonna get out of here.

"TOTAL!? WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"I'm in Angel's room! Hurry! It's not like I can get myself out of here! I'm only a _dog_ remember! I can't even fly yet! And I'm gonna burn inside of here if you don't hurry up! What? You wanna just leave me here to die!? Sure! Go ahead! Forget the dog! See if I care! I'm sure there'll be a hot spot in bird-kid hell reserved for ya!"

I rolled my eyes. The things I put myself through to save a talking-winged Scottie and his lover. I made my way to where Angel's room apparently was and I felt two different bodies of weight suddenly lean against me. I kneeled down and picked up Akila. She was still pretty heavy, and on top of that I had Total jumping onto her back. I stretched out my wings and jumped, not knowing if I had anywhere to run for a head start. I ducked my head and smashed through a really, really hot roof and I coughed. That smoke was killing my lungs.

"IGGY!" I heard from down below. You've gotta be kidding me. I dived back down to the ground and set the two dogs down.

"Stay away from the house and those Itex freaks!" I yelled and started running towards where the sound was where my name was being called. I ran as fast as I could to where I heard the scream, tripping a few times along the way. Someone grabbed my hand. It was Angel. Her hand felt so small in mine.

"Iggy, we're surrounded! They took a pretty good whack at Gazzy and he's pretty banged up. What do we do?"

Gazzy was hurt badly? God, what else could go wrong? Then I remembered something. These guys were Itex, right? I thought about what happened with Max and Fang. That Itex lady had melted in heat. If we could just get these guys close enough to the burning house…

"Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, try and get these guys as close to the fire as you possibly can!"

Without any hesitation, the Flock was on the job. I'm not sure how many of these goons there were now but I seemed to have a handful of them trying to take me down. Every now and then I'd take a pretty bad blow and have to get back up as quickly as I could. I felt myself getting hotter which meant I was getting closer to the fire. I heard another scream.

"Angel?!" I yelled.

"Iggy, its working!" I heard Nudge yell out from across the yard.

I kept walking backwards, trying to get these guys to the house when I suddenly felt my back being scorched. My eyes widened and I shot up into the air shaking out my wings in case they had caught on fire. I heard about five more screams and started to smell the most God-awful smell. Worse than anything Gazzy could whip up, that's for sure. I thought I was going to puke. I felt the presence of people around me.

"They're all gone," Gazzy said, voice cracking. Angel had said he'd gotten a pretty brutal beating. Speaking of which, my back stung with every flap of my wings. I needed cold water.

"Injury inventory," I said. "Angel?"

"Nothing too bad. I think I got a bruised cheek and a sore hand but that's about it."

That was a relief. "Nudge?"

"Black eye most likely. Bloody nose…" she sighed.

"Iggy?" Gazzy asked. "I don't feel good." Not what I was hoping to hear. "I have a really bad stomachache. I got hit there. And in the face a few times…a lot of times."

I sighed. I wish I had known really how bad he was hit. I might have really been able to help him. God I wished Max and Fang were here. I could have really used their help in all of this. My back started stinging even more and I winced. I couldn't fly like this.

"I think we're gonna have to walk," I said. "We can't carry both dogs right now."

"Iggy?" Nudge asked. I looked in her direction. "What are we going to do now? We can't go back and get the food, we can't fly right now, we have no money…what's gonna happen to us?"

We reached the ground and I scratched my head and wiped some of the blood off my upper lip from my nose. "We…we do what Max said." I replied. I hated those words but there really wasn't much else we could do. "We need to go back to where Dr. Martinez is staying in Virginia. We'll probably stay there until Max and Fang get back. Then we'll go from there. Got it?"

Silence. "Oh, yeah," Gazzy said. "We got it."

I sighed as we made our way to where Total and Akila were. This was going to be a heck of a long trip. I made a note to kill both of those love-birdies once we met up with each other again. This was the last time a blind guy was in charge of three kids and two bratty dogs. That's final.


	13. I Hate You I Love You

**NEXT CHAPTER! WHOO! I'm good. Not really. But, yes, this is another chapter. Kinda weird since I, like, just updated. I would have updated yesterday but I was too busy reading ****MAX****. For those of you who haven't read it yet: It's the best one yet. Really, it is. It's amazing. -foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

The sun shone so bright the next morning I think I was going to be blind by just looking out in front of me. I shaded my eyes and turned around, heading to the back of the cave. It was just the night before that Fang and I had our latest argument. I blamed him, he blamed…well he wasn't really blaming anyone. He was just defending himself. So I guess he was kinda blaming me for being a prissy teenage girl. But I _wasn't_. I was being:

1. The-One-And-Only Maximum Ride (I mean, it's not like I've never been mad at someone before, jeez);  
2. Reasonable because no one else in this entire world would even have that word in their vocabulary;  
3. Pissed off mainly because the boyfriendish person in my life had just broke his promised and left in the middle of a freaking _tornado_;  
4. Somewhat heartbroken for pretty much dumping him;  
5. And kind of mad at myself (and him for mentioning it) for leaving my Flock.

And if all of this wasn't bad enough, I had been feeling strangely dizzy and kind of sick since the start of the day. This is pretty much the reason why we hadn't left yet. I used Dr. Taylor as an excuse, saying that she could probably use a little more sleep before we scooped her up into the air and flew from Missouri to Virginia. This was a very valid reason but I knew Fang wasn't totally buying me being nice about anything at the moment. I really hated him for knowing so much about me. It's times like these where I wish I didn't have someone who knew the depths of my personality. Then I could lie and not have to worry about Mr. Fang already knowing that I was being 100% dishonest.

"Are you feeling up to flying?" I heard from behind me.

I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. He just loved making me feel uncomfortable. It probably made him feel even better knowing that he was the only one who could take that effect on me. I turned around and glared into his dark eyes. If I ever needed a mirror to, like, fix my hair or something, I knew all I had to do was look into those two dark pools of nothingness- just like a blank computer screen. Only smarter.

"What are you talking about?" I spat. "I feel fine. I was waiting for your mom to feel better."

The smarter-than-a-computer-screen eyes rolled around making me want to roll his head backwards with my fist.

"You can't lie to me. I know too much." I lifted an eyebrow. "When you don't feel well you usually walk drifting a little off to your right side rather than walking straight."

My jaw dropped. _I_ hadn't even noticed that. I felt like barfing. It was gross how much he knew about me. It was quite sad, actually. Ignoring the stalkerish view I now had on Fang, I gathered my emotions and thoughts up to try and block him out of my life once again just like I had done before. Because that totally ended well.

"I'm _fine_ to ignore that, I'm _fine_ to walk and I'm most certainly _fine_ to fly around. Now if you'll excuse me I have-."

Fang cut me off by his lips crashing into mine. Me being me, I was absolutely clueless to what was going on and I just kinda stood there with a dumbfounded expression as Fang kissed me with all his might and wrapped his arms around my waist. I felt myself being pushed up against him and that's when I felt my blood boil. WTH- I mean _really, Fang_?

I ripped myself away from him and instead of storming off like I'm oh-so good at, I stood there and glared at him. I don't think I've ever been madder in my whole life. I mean, I was mad when he and Iggy had switched my shampoo with pink hair dye, I was _mad_ when Gazzy had spilled milk over the whole entire kitchen floor (but HA! I never cried. Anyway…) and I was _mad_ when the guys had stolen one of my bras to use as the connecter sling shot thing for one of their explosive experiments (more like violated on that one…) but now I was passed the meaning of the word _mad_. There was no way to describe my absolute hatred for that jerk standing in front of me. I tried to calm down, I really did. But this wasn't looking good for any involved.

"WILL YOU *...* QUIT DOING THAT!?" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I AM SO SICK OF IT! YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE I'M A GIRL YOU CAN KISS ME WHENEVER YOU FEEL YOU NEED SOMEONE TO SUCK FACES WITH! WELL I'M SICK OF BEING YOUR KISSING TOOL! I DON'T ENJOY KISSING YOU! AND I DON'T LOVE YOU! I…I HATE YOU!!"

I took one glimpse of the reaction on Fang's face. That was all I needed to be sent even more over the outrage and top of hysteria and my eyes began filling with stinging, salty tears. And then I made the ever-so-popular emotion-escaping fly out. I left the cave as fast as I could fly with only the look of Fang's reaction stuck in my head. And let me tell you- it wasn't the picture of a blank computer screen with brains. It was kind of like the look in Ari's eyes right before I had killed him that time in the sewer. Scared, sorry, pained, torn…dead.

--

I carefully and painfully pulled my shirt off over my head and dropped it onto the ground next to me. I extended my wings, wincing, and lied down into the- FREEZING COLD WATER! I shot up like a rocket and landed face first into the dirt. I sighed. At least the others hadn't seen that. At least I hoped they hadn't. I remembered them staying behind at camp but who knows? They could be waiting for me to do something totally stupid and take a picture of it only to show Max my failed attempts at being Flock leader. Typical. I really didn't expect much out of them. Just shows ya how much we all love each other.

I picked myself up off of the ground and grabbed my shirt, pulling it back onto my soaking, pained body. My attempts of making my still burning back feel slightly better had failed miserably. I made my way back to camp and sat down next to Gazzy.

"Didn't work, huh?" he asked.

I groaned and collapsed onto my side. I was tired and wanted to sleep. It had been a really long, weird week with a lot of pain and bad smells (none of which came from the Gasman, mind you). Just melting Itex people. Yep. Melting. Totally and utterly disturbing. Something out of a movie or something.

It had been about five days since we left Dr. Lyons's house in Kansas. We had settled down for the night (it was dark and everyone started complaining so I took my new leader authorities and told everyone to shut up and sleep) and the girls were asleep. So were Total and Akila. It was just me and Gazzy. Make that just me. I swear, that kid knocks out like none other. I guessed I'd be taking watch. It was kind of weird- taking watch I mean. We'd been doing that a lot lately but we'd also had been at Dr. Martinez's house for a long time too and we didn't really need to worry about that kind of thing. We just kind of…lived. It was a nice feeling. And now we were going back. Well, just until Max and Fang returned.

I started to think about Fang's little fantasies of settling down on a deserted island somewhere. They were starting to sound really, _really_ nice. I guess I was daydreaming too hard because the next think I knew I was running my hand over a cold metal surface and I was pretty certain that dirt didn't feel silvery grey.

--

Despite my not wanting to return after what I had said to Mr. You-Know-Who, I did after about an hour. The longest hour of my life, I swear to God. When I landed at the entrance I was greeted by a partially warm, partially "I don't want to get in your way" smile by Dr. Taylor. I gave a really quick, awkward smile back and walked into the cave. I had thought things over. I had come to the conclusion that I had _kinda_ overreacted and I needed to apologize. I looked around the cave. No Fang. Maybe he went out for a fly, too? I walked back up to Dr. Taylor.

"Uh…you wouldn't happen to know where Fang is…do you?" I asked.

The lady looked very confused. "He never left."

I groaned. I hated that new little disappearing act of his. I gave a quick thanks and walked, once again, to the back of the cave. He was really hiding well in here because I couldn't find that boy anywhere. I finally just slid my back down the wall and sat down. I put my hand down next to me. My eyes widened. Cave floors usually weren't cloth and shoe feeling. I quickly removed my hand and looked to my left. Sure enough, Fang appeared into my sight, his arms across his knees like a bridge between them and his forehead on his arms.

I cleared my throat a little and I saw his shoulders rise and then fall. Was he asleep?

"F-Fang?" I asked. I wasn't sure what he was doing but whatever it was it sure wasn't Fang-like. I elbowed his elbow. He raised his head. The hair that usually covered his eyes were damp looking. He wasn't…dear God. Fang wasn't a crier. I don't think I've ever seen him cry a day in my life…or his life. And we had known each other for ages. My heart sped up. I had made Fang, Mr. Rock, _cry_. In other words: I was a horrible, horrible person. More horrible to put into words. I felt my heart in my throat and my stomach turn. I felt like I had murdered someone. In a way, I kinda did.

Instead of him saying anything (like I was actually expecting him too- note sarcasm) he just got up and left, picking up his pack and rubbing eyes with his hand like he had a headache or something. I saw him talk to Dr. Taylor. He picked the lady up and took off into the morning sky. I just stood watching him ascend into the sunlight. I wanted to kill myself. There was no way he was ever gonna forgive me for this one. And the truth is, that thought hurt more than him kissing me did. More than him breaking his promise did. It hurt because I knew I had just killed our friendship. I'd ruined the amazing relationship that we had spent 14 (about) years creating. I'd probably never speak more than simple Flock instructions to him until the day I died. And what hurt even _more_ than losing his friendship was losing it due to the fact that it was because it was bombed because of a believed lie. God, I loved that boy more than anything in this entire freaking world and there he was crying because I had screamed to him telling him that I hated him. I made a mental note to glue my mouth shut later.

I took off from the cave, my depression weighing me down, and flew behind Fang and his passenger into the sun.

_He knows you love him._ I almost dropped right out of the sky like a lead ball. _Just keep after him._


	14. Reunions

**A/N: Wow, I have free time. 3 chapters in one week. I'm quite proud of myself. Okay, so usually I (rather I used to, heh heh) pm people and thank them for their review but 1. I've gotten lazy; 2. There's too many of you; 3. I don't have any other excuses…so I'm going to thank everyone right now. THANK YOU GUYS ALL SOOOOO MUCH FOR THE FANTASTIC REVIEWS! You guys rock. –foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

_Wha…?_ I thought mainly to myself. _He still loves you_. I heard again. I shook my head and rubbed my temples. _No. Not that. Dr. Lyons?_ I hesitated. Was it Dr. Lyons (a.k.a.: the Voice that's been invading my skull over the past…oh say half of a yearish)? It couldn't have been. He had vanished the night before the tornado saying that he was going back to the City Hall to get paperwork. There was no way that guy would have made it out of there…unless he never _actually went there_. Hmmm…

_Max, I have some instructions for you._ I waited, not responding. _I need to catch up with you again. Fly two miles east and drop onto Mink Road. I'll meet you there._ It was kind of weird. I had never heard the Voice say that he'd meet me somewhere before. It felt really, really creepy. I mean, he had kinda led me to him but he was, like, secretive about it. He'd never actually said: Come here, I'll be waiting for you. I felt like I was on a mission. Like Bond. James Bond. Ride. Maximum Ride. It sounded cool enough. Hey, maybe after this whole mission thingy, I could make my own movie… _focus Max._ Right.

I took a breath and flew up beside Fang and Dr. Taylor. I was still kinda…let me rephrase: EXTREMELY pissed off at both myself and at him for what had happened so I had to get my act together and pretend like nothing happened. Yeah, 'cause that has always worked out so well for the two of us. Without turning his head to look at me, Fang questioned my presence with a quick hum.

"Two miles more east then drop," I said. There. Quick, blunt and painless. That's me! I soared up ahead of them and took my position as the potential leader of the "Flock". Meaning I was the only one who actually knew the area we were dropping to so they'd have to follow me anyway.

--

My eyes shot open like popping balloons and I moved my eyes around. Not that it'd do any good. I couldn't really identify one black spot from another. Slowly, I sat up.

"Iggy!" I heard. I prepared myself for an explanation to the screaming. Only…it wasn't a bad screaming. It was more like a "nice to see you" yell type of deal. It was Angel. I felt someone sit down next to me. I moved my hand over and felt the color blue. I also felt a soft jean material. Then I heard a giggle. I recognized that laugh…

I quickly removed my hand and I'm pretty sure my face turned read. What the heck was Ella doing here? I slouched in partial embarrassment for just like, groping her leg and partial depression for her laughing at my blindness.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm just kinda ticklish." _Uh-huh_. I thought to myself.

"So…what are you doing here? And where are we?"

"Jeb heard from Dr. Lyons that you guys were at his house. He asked for the three of us to meet him in Itex, Kansas. Well, the night we flew in and were supposed to meet him there, the town was evacuating due to a tornado warning so my mom insisted that we just met him on the border between Missouri and Kansas which is only about a two hour's drive from Itex. But when we all headed back to Dr. Lyons's house after the storms had passed, no one was there so we went on a little search party. I found Nudge and Angel awake in the woods. They both woke Gazzy up and we tried to get you up but you were totally out. So we carried you into the back of Jeb's truck. Right now we're stopped, though. I think were on Mink Road."

I rubbed my face in my hands and yawned. It had been nice to sleep but I had wished that someone would have woken me up.

"Why are we stopped?" I heard no response. I cleared my throat.

"Oh," said Ella. "Sorry. I'm not sure why. We just kinda…stopped."

"I think I know why!" I heard Nudge practically scream. Either she was, really, really excited or extremely scared. I couldn't tell. That girl screamed so often it was hard to tell whether it was because she had figured out the meaning of life or if she broke a nail or something stupidly girly. Instead of asking questions and taking charge (now that we were with some adults, the leader job was pretty much killed) I sat back and waited for whatever was going to happen to happen.

--

I started coasting downwards two miles later to a little road that ran by a river. I looked around. Below me I could see a white truck with a shell on it, covering the back. Was this where I was supposed to be. Wait…that truck looked oddly familiar. Where had I seen it before? It was…Jeb's truck? I sighed. This day just kept getting better.

We landed about a minute later and Fang put Dr. Taylor down. She was a little bit wobbly at first but Fang held her still until she got her legs back. Then she turned to me.

"Are you tired again?" she asked, concerned.

I glared. Yes, I was feeling a little more tired than usual but that wasn't my reason for stopping. It never was (I'd stop for the FLOCK not me) and it never would be. At least I hoped not.

"Noooo," I said a little ruder than I should have. Fang walked up to me and looked down at me. It was still really weird having him be like a giant over me. it was gonna take a while to get used to his six-footness.

"Voice?" he asked. Jeez. Stop knowing everything, will you? I nodded and started walking up to the parked silver Toyota. The door opened and I stopped about twenty feet away. The man in the driver's seat stepped out and turned to me, a smile on his face. Jeb. I turned around and went back to the other two. That's when it hit me. This would be the first time that Dr. Taylor has seen Jeb since she gave her son (Fang) to him for "adoption" (the School to become a mutant bird freak). I looked over to her.

"Uh," I began, "you're gonna have to face someone who I'm not sure you want to face or not right now." She tilted her head to the side, confused. "Remember how I said that we knew Jeb Batchelder?" Before the conversation could carry on any farther, I heard Jeb behind me.

"Janet?" he asked. "Janet Taylor?"

He stopped in his tracks and stared at the woman before him. Then he transferred glances between Fang and "Janet" Taylor. His jaw dropped slightly and he hesitated words. I coughed and subtly shook my head as if telling him "she doesn't know yet, stupid". Then Jeb cleared his throat and nervously shot out his hand.

"You do remember me…don't you?"

Dr. Taylor shook Jeb's hand very slowly and stared at the man. After a moment or two she took her hand back and nodded. "Jeb," she said silently. "You helped me with putting my son up for adoption." Jeb nodded. (That liar. Doesn't he know that people went to hell for that?)

I saw the doors of the bed of the truck open and out popped a tiny little winged-kid with golden curls bouncing with every step she took. Angel ran up to me and hugged me from around my waist. I let out an unknown breath and wrapped my arms around her. Why was she here? I pushed the thought aside. At least she was safe. I watched as the rest of the Flock (plus two dogs) exited the truck. We had some catching up to do. Then two people exited the front of the truck and one more from the bed. It was my mom! And Ella! And…Dr. Lyons. I stared in bewilderment at all of us standing here together. It was like one big, weird, creepy family reunion. I was standing there in confusion, Dr. Taylor was probably confused by all the kids and people everywhere, the kids and my mom didn't know who Janet was… and here I thought everyone knew everyone and we had this whole situation totally and utterly figured out. To make things worse:

"Can we get this show on the road? I'm starving! And so is Akila. A woman of her stature shouldn't wait around for people to feed her! She's not _human_ you know! You could show some respect!"

Instantly Dr. Lyons and Dr. Taylors eyes both shot down to the talking Scottie at the same time. Their eyes were as wide as dinner plates. What? Never seen a talking dog before?

"Did he just…no," said Janet. "I'm going crazy. Flying people, talking dogs…too much lab testing and torture can do that to a person. I just need to lie down…"

I placed a hand on the woman's shoulders. "I wish you were delusional. I really do. But sadly, this is reality. The cold, hard truth. I fly, Fang flies," I pointed to the rest of the Flock, "they fly, the dog talks… and has wings…" I saw Dr. Taylor place a hand on her forehead. I walked over to Dr. Lyons and pointed to him. "And you can thank it all to this guy!"

I walked back over to my Flock. Janet looked at the scientist. "You…created them?" Dr. Lyons cleared his throat. Nudge tugged on my jacket sleeve.

"Max? Who's the pretty lady who looks like Fang?" I let out a chuckle. The words "pretty" and "Fang" in the same sentence just had that effect on me. Her eyes widened. "Noooo waaayyyy! It's that doctor you and Fang met!"

I took a quick, worried glance at Fang. Now wasn't the right time to-.

"You're Fang's mom!" Nudge said coming up to Dr. Taylor and smiling bright at her. "I'm Nudge. I'm Fang's…kinda sister. I mean we're not really related but in a way we kinda are, ya know? I mean we're the only six with wings and we've lived with each other our whole lives. But it's sooo cool to actually meet someone one of us is actually related to! Only Iggy and Max have met their real parents…but now Fang-."

I placed a hand over Nudges mouth and brought her back a few steps. "Okay, that's enough, Nudge," I said with a nervous laugh.

Dr. Taylor just stood there, dumbfounded. She was trying to take in all of the give that Nudge just threw up all over her. Then she slowly turned towards Fang. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and he was looking down at the ground, though his head was almost level. She came up and placed a hand on his cheek. Fang slowly looked up but never met her gaze. He looked kind of scared.

Janet kind of studied him for a while. His eyes, his hair, his facial features. They had the same deep eyes, hair, skin color, eyebrows (Fang's were a little bushier and Janet's looked plucked) and lip shape. She blinked a few times and covered her mouth while stepping back a step. Fang just stood there, nervous. I couldn't tell if this lady was happy, scared or mad or maybe a little of all three. I saw a tear slip from one of her eyes. I told the kids and the dogs to go back into the truck and wait. They did so. My mom and Dr. Lyons caught on and went into the car. Jeb and I stayed outside. I walked up to the reunited family.

"I know this must be a little weird," I almost whispered, not wanting to totally ruin the vibe of the moment. I have a way of doing that from time to time. Now didn't really seem appropriate. "You know, finding him, knowing…what you know. It was like that for my mom, too. She's the one who was just out here."

There were no responses. Dr. Taylor shut her eyes tight. For a moment she looked angry. Really pissed. I thought (and kinda hoped) that she was going to go over and punch the daylights out of Jeb. But she didn't. Instead she opened her eyes, walked right back up to Fang again and wrapped her arms around him. Fang didn't really know what to do. He looked at me and I nodded like saying "Yeah, doof, you can hug your own mother". But I knew what he was feeling. Scared, odd. Like how I felt when I first saw Dr. Martinez after I found out she was my mom. it was wonderful finally knowing, but it was hard on your confidence- contemplating if this new person (conveniently the one who gave birth to you) was going to accept you…or reject you. I hoped it was the first one, for Fang's sake. Fang wasn't the kind of person who should be rejected. _Damn it._

I closed my eyes and rubbed them with my hand. When I looked back up, Fang had his arms wrapped around Dr. Taylor- his mother- and was holding her as close to him as he could. Like he didn't ever want to lose her again. I didn't blame him. I knew the feeling all too well. It was a Kodak moment, really. But all Kodak moments have to end. Especially when you're a bird-kid on the run for your life which was exactly what we were about to be doing.

I heard a loud thunder-like noise from above me. The hug fest stopped and we all looked towards the sky, shielding our eyes. They were airplanes. Tons of them. I looked closer, being able to make them out with my raptor vision. _I've seen those planes before. But where?_ That time in town. I had been wondering what they were. Was this an air show? Then it hit me…no really- it _actually hit me._


	15. In The Sky Again

**Chapter 15! Another quick update. Don't know where I'm finding all this time, but hey, at least I have some! Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon. I won't write any tomorrow because of a choir concert at my school but I'm sure I'll manage to get some time in this weekend. Once again, thanks for all of the reviews!- foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

You know that song that goes: "I want to get away; I want to fly away."? I think I have the right to dedicate it to me. It pretty much fits my every situation. Especially right now. You see, after the joyous mouth of Nudge spilled the beans about Dr. Taylor being Fang's mom, well let's just say there was a little hug fest. What happens whenever our Flock has a hug fest? If you chose the answer "Pretty background music with a fading screen and butterflies" you're dead wrong.

We all had heard a noise coming from the sky like thunder. Well, it wasn't. Shocker, right? It was a mass amount of airplanes with…wait for it…_guns_. Always one of my favorites. And me being me, I tend to get on people's nerves when I don't like them (even if I do) and then those people try o find ways to kill me. It happens more than you think.

Thank goodness they didn't (if they had, you, my fellow reader, wouldn't be reading this; tricky right?). But they did manage to do a number to my arm. The three of us outside followed the rest into the truck and Jeb put the pedal to the metal. Airplanes can follow you though, believe it or not. So we spent most of our driving time swerving bullets. In the mean time, Ella was trying to find ways to keep my arm from gushing more blood. Nothing seemed to be working.

I turned white when she mentioned "stitches". I was about to suggest an alternative option (like letting me bleed to death) when I heard Gazzy and Iggy yell "3-2-1!" _Oh dear God,_ I thought. The two sent some explosive flying out the back of the truck and into the sky. We all crammed around the windows of the shell and looked out and up to the sky. The bomb hit the middle plane dead on. We watched as the plane blew up into a million pieces and I heard the slapping of high-fives. I had to admit, it was pretty cool having two pyros on your side.

And even better, we got to sit back and watch a firework show! The pieces of the first plane hit two other planes in front and behind it and _those_ planes exploded from impact sending more debris flying about the sky. Pretty soon the whole mess of murderous planes was raining from the sky in tiny pieces like metal confetti. It was pretty amazing. Jeb sped up a little more to get out of the area so that we weren't struck from the falling airplanes or even worse, their passengers inside.

About an hour later we came upon a hotel in a small town on the border of Missouri and Arkansas. Jeb and Dr. Lyons were trying to explain our whole life story to Dr. Taylor. She was pretty pissed off when she realized that Jeb had lied to her about bringing Fang to an orphanage only to bring him to a science lab and turn him into a freakish bird-kid. She sighed and said "It's okay" but you could tell that her response was mostly sarcastic. I don't think she was gonna let him off the hook that easy. Way to be, Dr. Taylor.

As for me and the rest of the Flock (minus Fang, wasn't really sure where he was…), we were all in my mom's room. I was sitting on a towel on her bed (to keep from getting blood all over the hotel sheets) as white as a fluffy cloud like you see in happy cartoons. But I wasn't quite happy. I was more like a rain cloud inside. Mad and depressed (for lack of better words). I had my arm held out to the side of me and my mom was casually stitching away at my skin like I was some kind of sweater that had a hole in it.

"Max," my mom said. "This would go a whole lot faster if you weren't such a baby and just held still." My jaw dropped. A _baby_? Really, mom? What would you do if you got SHOT IN THE ARM and had to get your arm _sewed up_? Gracious. I heard a snicker from Gazzy and Iggy. I leaned forward as if to go after them and the flinched. Bad idea.

"OUCH!" I screamed. Their snickers thundered into laughter. I swear…

"Serves you right," Dr. Martinez said.

I slowly moved my head towards hers and glared at her. She was snipping the stitches near my skin and was smiling. She pulled out gauze and bandaged up my arm and I left the room as quickly as I could.

"It'll be better in one-."

"Day? Alright, thanks, Mom!"

I slammed the door behind me and just about fell over in the hallway. I had gotten up too fast. That had never bothered me before. I closed my eyes for a moment as I tried to pass off a sudden queasiness and light headedness.

"Are you okay?" I heard. I turned my head to see Fang leaning against the wall about ten feet away with his hands in his pockets and a completely emotionless expression on his face. He walked up and stood in front of me. Good. Now I could faint and not have to hit the floor. Unless he moved…

I nodded slowly and straightened my position. "Just a little dizzy," I said.

"You lost a lot of blood," he said. I nodded again. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

Fang squeezed my shoulder and passed by me, going into the boys' room. I sighed. It had been about a day since I had actually spoken to him, even if it wasn't very much. I started wondering if I should go in and apologize to him. Then I remembered that he was the one who left me in the first place and decided against it.

_But you yelled at him_, I heard. I looked around. I was the only one in the hall. Everyone else was gone. I rubbed my temples and started walking towards the girls' room. _You need to apologize, Max._ It was Angel. But how how'd she know about the fight? Had Fang been thinking about it? _He's in there alone._ I groaned. _Look Angel_, I thought back. _I know what I need to do. Just…now isn't the time, okay? I need some time to figure a few things out first._ I waited for a response or a whine. _Now is the right time_, I heard. I shook my head and walked into our room. Now wasn't the time. I knew it. I needed some time to think about some things. I knew that once I did apologize that something else was gonna come of it. That it would end up as me and Fang being "close" again and I wasn't sure if I really wanted that for now. I decided that I'd give it a week or so then I'd bring it up. I knew it wasn't the ideal time but I just needed some thinking time with just _me_; just _Max_. No Angel, no Voice…just me and my own stupid reasoning. Because that always got me far.

--

The next day started early. It began with me waking up the Flock and the little group we were hanging out with so that we could get a move on. My mom packed us a bunch of sandwiches and different things for meals for us into my backpack. She also gave me her new cell phone number as well as Ella's. Jeb asked if we needed his but I told him that we could probably manage without it. Then it was time for goodbyes.

My mom hugged me as tight as she possibly could without killing me.

"I'm going to miss you so much, Max," she said. I beamed at her and hugged back.

"I'll miss you, too, Mom."

I gave Ella a long hug and conveniently left out Jeb. I said goodbye to Dr. Lyons for a final time as well. Well, at least for now.

"Remember, I'll always be right up here when you need help," he said, pointing to his head.

"And even when I don't." He nodded and patted my hair. I gave him a scowl and returned to gathering a few more materials as the Flock said goodbye to everyone. I waited in the hallway and my eyes caught a glimpse of Fang. He was away from everyone else and was talking to his mom. It's still so weird saying that.

"Are you sure you want to keep going like this?" I heard her ask. "Because you…and everyone else…are welcome to stay with me." _Typical mother,_ I thought. Fang shook his head.

"I don't want to put you in danger," he replied. "It's not safe for us to stay in one place and I don't want you to get hurt any more than you already have. Just stay with Max's mom and Jeb."

She nodded and hugged him tightly. It took him another moment but he finally responded back with a hug. I thought that out of the corner of my eye I may have seen a tear fall from Dr. Taylor's face. Either that or I'm beginning to become oddly delusional. Take your pick.

The two pulled away and came over to join us. I sighed (slightly in relief from leaving this tiny hotel) and gathered the Flock up. "Okay, guys," I started. "You ready to move on out again?"

I heard a wine from Total. He licked Akila on the head and solemnly trotted over to us. Jeb had decided that it would be best if Akila stayed behind so that we wouldn't have to carry around an 80 pound dog with us to slow us down. Thank God. But this left Total devastated. We all waved and started walking down the hallway. The others had gone down the stairs, I was one step down and Fang was right behind me.

"Fang, wait!" we heard.

Both of us paused and turned around to see Dr. Janet Taylor jogging towards us. She stopped in front of Fang and hugged him one last time. "Be careful," she said. He just nodded like he always did. I could see that this was really hard for Janet to leave her son again to the world. It's hard for most parents, I guess.

"I love you."

Fang remained silent and pulled away slowly. He looked up into her eyes and gave a slight smile then started heading down the stairs. Janet looked almost heartbroken. I smiled to her.

"Don't worry," I said. "He just needs time to take it all in, you know? Don't get too down about it. I know from experience, when it comes time for one of us to become reacquainted with our parents, we're a little on edge the first time. We don't know what to expect with all that we've been through- the School and everything. But I can guarantee you he doesn't hate you."

Dr. Taylor nodded and sighed. "Just make sure nothing happens to him."

I laughed a little. "I'll do the best I can." She gave me a quick hug and I hustled down the stairs and caught up with the others.

We began our flight for the day once outside of the hotel. Better yet, everything seeming back to normal again. Well, as normal as it could get when you were a mutant bird freak on the run. I tried to tune out the sound of Nudge's voice blabbing on about how our next adventure could be in France so that we could go shopping and eat a bunch of stuff like the last time. By tuning her out I was able to catch on other sounds around me and focus into being alert to keep the Flock safe. I was also able to catch the faintest whisper that seemed to travel across the wind like fragile snowflakes. I made out the words in my head and smiled.

"I love you, too, Mom."


	16. Vanishing Cream

**A/N: Chapter16! I have no idea how long this'll be, just to letchya know. Okay, so as you may have noticed, I changed the summary. So please tell me if you like this one or the old one better. The old one was: Sometimes you can't fix the past and sometimes you can't prepare for the future. In this case you can't do either and you're going to have to deal with it. But there's one thing you can always count on Max. I love you. (And yes, that'll be a quote. Quess who from!) But anyway, here's chapter 16!- foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

We touched down after three hours of flying to grab something to eat. It was just our luck that there was a street market in the town we were settling for that day. Honestly, I think they planned it just for us. I mean, we deserve a nice, fresh, hot meal at a carnival like setting to make us feel normal, right? I looked to my left and my right. There were stands everywhere. There were _amazing_ food smells from barbeque to cookies and I was snapping up every free sample I could get. We were on a budget, remember. Thank goodness the streets weren't all that crowded. Well at least on this part of town.

I began to walk a little slower than the rest of the Flock. Just to be "alone". I was feeling so overwhelmed from the past few weeks it was unbelievable. I hated how much I thought about Fang. I hated it so much. I didn't even know why I still thought about it. It had only been a week since we had broken up back in Missouri but it still hurt. I missed him. I missed him even though I saw him almost every second of everyday. It was killing me inside. And on top of all this "missing him" crap, I was still feeling tired and sick. Like a really bad cold was about to pound its way into my system. It wasn't the best combo.

"Try some Vanishing Cream!" I heard from my left. I turned my head to see this lady walk up to me. She was dressed in tight red pants and a black t-shirt; tennis-shoes and thin-rimmed glasses. "Do you have a tattoo that you don't want your relatives to know about?" she asked me.

I raised an eyebrow. "No," I said. Why the heck would I have a tattoo? And besides, I don't really have relatives. Just Dr. Martinez, Ella and…the _creature_. A.K.A.: Jeb (just in case you were successful in washing his name out of your head- I want you to share the same nauseating feelings from that name as I do).

"Well, cover it up when you go see them with this!" the woman pulled out a small bottle of cream. What part of "no" didn't she understand? She then held out her arm and squeezed some cream out of the bottle and onto a tattoo on her arm. It came out white but blended into her skin and, like she had said, made the tattoo vanish.

"No thank you," I said, walking away. The lady grabbed my arm and I was about to freak and punch her when she placed the bottle in my hand and closed my fingers around it. Then she took a step back.

"Just take it. As a gift." I raised an eyebrow and walked off. I shoved the cream into my jacket pocket and zipped it up before catching up with my Flock. I decided I'd throw the bottle away at our next camp-out.

--

We found another motel. Very cheap, too. Only $100 for one night for two rooms and a kennel (which Total was sooo not happy about). But it was nice. Speaking of nice, I was ecstatic to take a nice hot shower. The water felt so good. But after I got out and started getting dressed, I started feeling a little drowsy again. And it happened, like, suddenly. It was weird. I figured it was probably the hot water and my catching a cold.

Once dressed, I rubbed a spot clear on the fogged up mirror and looked straight at it. No Eraser. That still freaked me out. I was about to go out and watch TV when the drowsiness started taking a stronger effect. I stepped forward and leaned against the counter. I was really getting sick, wasn't I? I couldn't get sick. I sighed and looked into the mirror again. I looked normal. Then I looked at my eyes. Brown but…different. I looked really tired and really stressed. Which I was but I didn't think I'd actually show it. I looked closer. They looked darker- almost black like Fang's. It was weird. I shook my head and looked away. Bad idea. I started feeling dizzy.

"Max?" I heard from outside the bathroom. It was Fang's voice. He hadn't spoken to me in a long time and it was kinda nice to hear it. "Done with your shower? I sort of need to…talk to you."

I sighed. I didn't want to talk. I never want to talk lately.

"Yeah, be out in a second," I said. That's when a thought popped into my mind. Why was I so tired and sick all of a sudden? It couldn't be…

I pulled my wet hair off of my neck and pulled it up and turned around. I shifted my head so I could see the back of my neck in the mirror. And I can tell you one thing- I've never been so horrified in my entire life.

--

Six digits separated in twos by hyphens marked the back of my neck. It was my death mark. It was like the mark of the beast. It was horrifying. It was pure evil. It was my expiration date. It was coming. It could be tomorrow for all I knew. I wasn't good at keeping track of what day it was. I quickly released my mass of wet hair all around my neck and tried to figure out some way to cover it up, not wanting the others to know. I threw open drawers to see if there was any hairspray to keep my hair from moving from its position but there was none. I was about to just bust out of the bathroom and ask Fang what to do about the situation when I remembered an event from earlier that day. The Vanishing Cream.

I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out a small tube of white cream. I squeezed some out onto my fingers and pulled my head back once more. I turned around, watching my neck in the mirror and applied the cream to it. And just like I had seen before, the tattoo vanished. It was gone. And it didn't even look like I had anything there. It just looked like my skin. Taking a deep breath, I combed my hair out and walked into my room which I shared with the rest of the girls. Only no one was there. I figured everyone was in the boys' room chatting it up. In which case I'd stay out here and sleep.

"Max?" I jumped to the sound of my name and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around—Fang.

"Yeah?" I asked, almost rudely. I wasn't trying to it's just that I was frustrated and depressed and honestly, on the verge of tears. I mean hey, if you knew you were going to die really, really soon wouldn't you be, too?

"We need to talk about something."

I sighed and pointed to my bed. We both sat down, backs leaning up against the head board. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to start the conversation.

"It's about what's been going on," he started. I nodded slowly, knowing exactly what he was talking about. I felt my heart rate speed up. "I'm sorry." He said. I waited again for some more…something but he was done. Just like that. Two simple words that, in his mind, made the world magical and spinning again. We both just sat there for a few minutes, not talking. Neither of us looked at each other. It was pure torture. It was awful. I felt like I was in, like, a mind prison. I finally decided to do something. But I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do or not. I got up and left, slamming the door behind me in frustration. How's that for an apology?

--

I was about to knock on the other door when I heard something coming from outside. I listened in closely. It sounded like a motor. A really, really big motor.

"MAXIMUM RIDE!" I heard through what sounded like a megaphone. "COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF!"

I laughed. Yeah, like I'm totally going to stand out in the middle of the street (in the pouring rain, may I add) and wait for you to shoot me or sick a dog or something on me. Or maybe burn me at the steak. I was no witch, but it would be kinda cool to die like someone who was important. Like…Joan of Arc! Yeah, if I was gonna die I'd want to die like her. NOT by some stupid tattoo on my neck. Maybe if I "showed myself" I could request my own fate…I shook my head and entered the room without knocking.

"What did you do this time?" Iggy asked. I stuck my tongue out at him. Dang it. Useless. "You've got like, the FBI or something calling you."

I shoved passed Iggy and to the window, opening the curtains just enough to take a peek outside. I looked up. There was a helicopter with someone standing in it and shouting at me through the window with a megaphone. _Itex in the Helicopter with a megaphone…_I thought. That'd be one way to die. I closed my eyes. I really needed to stop thinking about ways to kill myself.

"You've gotta be kidding me," I finally said. "More airpower? This really sucks. Okay, we'll just stay in here until they-."

I was cut off by an explosion. I immediately turned to Gazzy and Iggy and glared. The Gasman put his hands up in defense just as a heard a bunch of people screaming and yelling "fire!" and the hotel alarm went off. I groaned. _Really? Can't they just…come in and arrest me? No need to be dramatic_.

Fang stormed in the room and I nodded. We headed outside (getting Total first, of course) and bolted down the street as fast as we could while dodging bullets at the same time. Being a multitasked human-hybrid has its advantages. Then again, if it weren't for the disadvantages we wouldn't really have the advantages…but then the advantages wouldn't be advantages, they'd be…oh never mind. **(A/N: Sorry, that was me trying to figure something out and then failing miserably)**.

--

I was running as fast as I could. I wished I could fly. But the stupid people were in the stupid sky and there was no way any of the others could out fly an airplane. So we were stuck ground-born. I turned back to catch a glimpse of my Flock. They looked determined. And wet. And cold. And as miserable as I was. We needed to find some shelter for the night. Somewhere where we could sleep and get away from these numbskulls. Then I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, there it was. Another cave.

I motioned left with my hand and we all darted further into the trees. I looked up. I couldn't see any stars which meant the trees were probably covering us. We stopped at the small hole and looked in. I pulled out a flashlight from the pack that Dr. Lyons gave me and stepped down and into the cave. It wasn't really big or anything but it could fit all of us, a dog and a fire comfortably. I motioned for the others to follow me.

It was Iggy who got the fire going so that we could all sit down and eat. I wasn't particularly hungry, though. I'm pretty sure it was because of me being "sick" (for the lack of better words) but it could just be from being too tired. I rubbed the back of my neck. Bad idea. Looking at my hand I saw some residue from the cream on it. That meant I rubbed some off from my neck and my tattoo was probably showing.

"I'm going to go keep watch," I announced. It wasn't total BS but it was on edge. I sat down outside the cave, my back leaning against the stone, and I dug in my right pocket for the bottle of cream. I pulled out nothing. I blinked a few times and dug in my other pocket and the pockets of my jacket. Nothing. Was it in my bag? I was about to get up and go look when I heard a voice coming from beside me.

"Looking for this?" it said. My head whipped around to see Fang standing there, holding the Vanishing Cream. He sat down and looked at the bottle.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You know what it is," he said, sitting down. "Just one dab blends right into your skin and hides away any tattoo that you are too embarrassed to show. Use around friends, family or your boss to keep your little secret a secret." I rolled my eyes at Fang's fake announcer voice. "So…" he said. "Can I see it? It has my name in it, right?"

I looked at him funny. Either he was being a total jerk and pretending he didn't know or he was a complete idiot and really didn't know. I picked the first one. "Yeah, totally," I said. "It says 'I LOVE FANG' in big bold letters with a heart around it. And when I flex, it looks like the heart is _actually beating_. Pretty sweet, right?"

Fang let out a chuckle and scooted closer to me. I started feeling uncomfortable. I didn't want this. Not again. Not after what he did. But part of me felt…settled. I figured I should let it slide until he started making me really uncomfortable. Like kissing me or something. And I really thought he was going to but all he ended up doing was putting his arm around my shoulders.

"It's cold," was all he said.

I nodded. I didn't know where he was going with this but I knew that soon…very soon…he'd be asking me about my "tattoo". I felt his arm shift and start to slide until his hand was at my neck. I flinched as he started to massage it. My breathing became more and more deep and my body became tense. Not because he was massaging my neck, but because I knew _why_ he was massaging my neck.

"You've been acting kind of tired lately. Are you okay?" I swallowed hard and nodded, not knowing how this was going to turn out. If he'd be mad or sad or scared or what. "Are you getting sick?" I shrugged. I'm not sure if you could call this sick or what. All I knew was that I was…dying. I tried that word out in my head. _Dying_. _Maximum Ride is dying_. I blinked a few times as if confused and thought it again. _I am dying_, I thought. And honestly, I think that's the first time that it actually hit me. I was becoming like Ari and all of the other Erasers had become. Extinct. Retired. Expired. Whatever you want to call it. I was being murdered. Day by day I was getting weaker and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I looked up to the sky as if searching for an answer. A light flashed before my eyes. _I wish…I wish I could…_and before I could finish any train of thought, I started bawling. Right there as Fang massaged my neck. Right there in the open. I cried. Harder than I've ever cried before. I cried because that would probably be my last star, my last wish, my last hope. My last quiet moment with Fang.

I felt his arms wrap around me as my body shook from my tear-fest. I laid my head on his shoulder and held my arms to my stomach, leaning into him. My chest rose and fell with each quivering breath I took and my eyes burned from the salty tears.

"Shhhh," I heard. "It's okay, Max. It's okay." And I was expecting him to say _please don't cry_ just like he always did. But I didn't hear it. "It's okay. Just cry." And I did.


	17. Butterflies

**A/N: COMPLETE FLUFF CHAPTER!!! Only because the last few haven't really had any nice moments. Just death and hatred and…yeah. So here's a love-bird (no pun intended) chapter. It's short. And I kinda stole it from another fanfic one-shot I wrote for something else. But anyway, here it is. - foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

The morning was quiet and slow it seemed, but that was probably just from the grogginess of waking up. I yawned and stretched my arms up to the sky and looked around. Everyone was still asleep. Everyone except Fang. Where was he? I looked around, standing up and brushing off my jeans. I shrugged it off thinking that he was probably off to the river nearby to get ready for the day. I was about to go to the river myself when a hand on my wrist stopped me. I spun around to see who had halted my walk only to see the one I was looking for.

"Fang?" I whispered, hoping not to wake up the others.

"I have to show you something. It's really, really cool. I found it earlier this morning and I think you'll really like it."

The boy smiled brightly and I nodded. Fang led me deeper into the small forest. It was a little eerie in there. Not that I was afraid of forests but it was morning and really, really quiet. It was chilly outside with dew on the grass causing my jeans to become soaked through the plants. And there was a morning fog draped lightly around the trees that made the place take on a ghostly feature. I decided to pretend not to notice. If anyone came along I knew we could take them off in no time. So I had nothing to be worried about, really.

That's when I noticed that he was still gripping my wrist. I blushed a little as I saw the sight. I wanted to pull my wrist away and just follow him but Fang's hand was too strong to get away from. Fang was walking quickly, dragging me along and I was barely paying attention to where we were going and more of where we were. I studied our surroundings, memorizing our way out of here and back to the cave just in case something did happen. I looked down at my wrist again.

"Fang?" I asked. He stopped walking and turned around to look at me, his eyes relaxed and comforting. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and shook my head. "Never mind."

He raised his shoulders for a moment and dropped them quickly as if he really didn't mind my sudden outburst. But the fact that he was cutting off the circulation of my hand still remained and it didn't feel like he was going to let go anytime soon.

We stopped in front of two big bushes and Fang lifted a finger up to his lips with his free hand signaling for me to be silent. I didn't know why he did that, neither of us had really said much the whole way here. In fact, the two of us hadn't been saying much at all lately. We carefully made our way through the bushes and before us stood a foggy meadow. It was beautiful. Despite the fog, there were wild flowers and poppies and tall grass as far as I could see. Fang was right, I did love it. I felt somewhat girly and got embarrassed. I know, I'm a girl but I hate those feelings I get when I see like really pretty settings that make my girly emotions go "Oh my gosh! It's amazing!" That was more Nudge-like than Max-like.

"Fang it's-."

"Wait," he interrupted. "You haven't seen the best part."

Fang smiled again and, to my _somewhat _disappointment, let go of my wrist. Then he took a step back and snapped his wings out from the back of him. I tilted my head. What was he doing? Fang started moving his wings back and forth, making a little bit of wind. My eyes widened.

"Isn't it great?" Fang asked, pulling me out of my daze.

"Yes…" I finally answered. "Yes, it is."

I stared out again. Hundreds of butterflies swarmed the skies that once hid beneath the grass. It was amazing. I never knew that something so calm could spring to life in just a matter of seconds. In a way it reminded me of Fang. The way they lit up the sky, like Fang's smile, the way they moved gracefully, like Fang did. This discovery made me love the sight even more. Then Fang grabbed my hand and pulled me quietly out into the meadow.

"Come on," he whispered.

I nodded and followed. I walked out to the middle of the meadow next to him and watched as the butterflies swarmed around and in-between us. Then Fang fell onto his back in the grass and stared at the sky. I copied his motions. My eyes shifted from the skies and over to Fang. He was looking at me with a great smile.

"I knew you'd like it."

There was a spark of triumph in his voice which made me laugh a little. I'd never seen him act like this before. Since when had Fang been so into trying to make me enjoy myself? I thought about last night. The way he just sat there and held me for what seemed like hours as I cried into his chest. Maybe this was his way of trying to cheer me up. Maybe it was his way of apologizing. I looked around at all of the butterflies. I hate to admit it, but it sure did work. I rolled over to my side and looked at Fang. He had his eyes closed and was breathing in and out slowly, as if trying to take in every second of this moment, just like I was.

I hated myself for forgiving him this easily but what else was I supposed to do? Say: "You're gonna have to do better than that" get up, walk away and not speak to him for the rest of the day? I don't think so. As if Fang could feel my stare he opened his eyes and looked at me and smirked. Then he leaned on his side, facing me. His face only inches away from mine. I could hear him breathing and I could feel his breath on my lips. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what I was going to do.

_Just kiss him,_ I heard not knowing if it was me thinking it or the Voice. I looked to the ground one more time before returning my stare. Oh, what the heck? I shut my eyes tightly and leaned into Fang, pressing my mouth to his. I felt him smile and his arms wrapped around my waist. I heard more fluttering of butterfly wings and my stomach felt like it had a bunch of them flying around in it. My emotions got the best of me. I hoped I wouldn't regret this later and go back to being mad at him. I was momentarily in a trance that only Fang could bestow on me and I was totally out of it. And I loved it.


	18. San Francisco

**Chapter 18! - foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

The week hadn't started out necessarily normal, but it wasn't bad, if you know what I mean. If I could insert a smiley face there I totally would. But anyway, it was about seven in the evening and we were on our way to San Francisco, California. Why? Because a little Voice inside my head told me to go there. You mean you have to make decisions all on your own? Jeez, I'm sorry. And I thought being a mutant bird freak was hard.

Anyway, yes, Dr. Lyons (the Voice- get with the program, people) had instructed me to go to the ever-popular San Francisco. He said that he had some things he needed to talk to us about concerning our future and he had another "secluded" house there where we could "comfortably" talk with him. Because finding this guy and talking to him in a place called _Itex_, Kansas isn't secluded or comfortable at all. I mean, really. This defies EVERYTHING about us:

1. All the houses are really, really close together and uniform – we are claustrophobic  
2. We were in tornado alley – we're part bird, we can't fly in tornados very effectively (unless you Mr. Macho Fang)  
3. We were in _Itex_, Kansas – we were avoiding _Itex_ the cooperation because they're trying to kill us

See how his had "DEATH" written all over it? Yeah, it turns out there was a tornado, Fang left DURING the tornado, I left to go after him, Dr. Lyons disappeared (kinda) and then the others got attacked by people from the Itex cooperation who melt. Need I mention the house caught on fire? It don't get much better than that, folks.

So hopefully this place will be somewhat deserted and a little safer than the last safe house. In the meantime, I had broken up with Fang, he'd found his mother in an Itex lab, we escaped, Fang and I fought some more, we got back together with the family (I mean EVERYONE), Fang and I got back together (note smiley face comment above) and I had found out that I had a new death mark tattooed on the back of my neck. Wee.

"Max?" I looked over to Angel who had called my name. "When are we going to reach San Francisco?"

"Yeah," Nudge blurted. She's the blurter of the group, keep in mind. "I want to see the Golden Gate Bridge! And Alcatraz! Ohhh, do you think they have a lot of shops there? Can we go shopping? Not like buy anything but, you know, just look around."

"Uhhh," I replied. "If we have time. I mean, we're kind of on a mission here." I saw disappointment on the Flock's faces. I always seemed to do that to them. "I never said no."

I saw a slight smile come from Nudge and she started to fly a little more happier. I sighed. I wanted a vacation but I just had this weird feeling that it wasn't going to turn out the way we would plan it. Not that that's ever happened before or anything…

"There it is!" Gazzy yelled.

"What's where?" Iggy's eyes scanned the skies.

"He means the bridge, Ig. Nothing too exciting. Maybe you could go up and touch it to see what color it is."

"Gold. I already know."

I heard a chuckle come from a certain know-it-all Scottie. "Gold? You really think it's gold?"

"We'll it's not like I've ever actually _seen_ it before," Iggy shot back.

Total became silent as we started heading down to the city.

"Isn't it pretty?" Nudge asked as we looked down.

I had to admit, it was a pretty sight. The sun was setting on the water and lights on bridges and buildings were beginning to pop up. I saw a boat out in the water. It was like postcard perfect I wished I had a camera. I yawned and batted my eyes a little, trying to keep awake. My Flock seemed to be doing fine but I was dog tired. Rather…bird kid tired.

"Okay, guys," I announced. "How about a little sleep?"

I saw nods and heard sighs of thanks from the small crowd. I think Total was already asleep in Fang's arms. Either that or someone was breathing rather nasally because I could have sworn it was the sound of a certain mutant Scottie snoring.

We took a dip in the cool air and picked out a big bunch of trees to sleep in. I hoped it wasn't another park we'd get kicked out of. I really wasn't in the mood. I picked a nice sturdy branch and sat down for first watch. I swung my legs over the edge and looked around. San Francisco really was a cool city. I started reminiscing past reruns of the city based show on TV. I wondered if they really filmed it here.

"Yo Max."

I looked up. Fang was on the branch above me. I raised an eyebrow as he motioned for me to come up on his branch. I stood up on mine and grabbed his, pulling myself up and sitting next to him.

"Arentchya gonna sleep?" I asked. Fang shrugged and stared out at the water.

"I just have a suggestion." I tilted my head to the side and told him to elaborate. "A vacation. Not real long but just for a few days. You know, to give the Flock a little rest. Nudge was on to something there."

I thought about it. A vacation actually didn't sound all too bad. But it would cut out a lot of time from our schedule and what if we were being tracked? There was still the possibility of Total being chipped. And there was still the possibility that I was delusional but they were both very likely.

"Hmm…" I thought. "I dunno. Do you think it's a good idea?" Fang shrugged again.

I wanted to rip his shoulders out. God gave him vocal chords for a reason, right? Then he reached in his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It was all glossy like it was all fancy-shmancy professional advertising. And it was. I leaned over to Fang to get a better look of what it was.

"_San Francisco Annual Chocolate Festival,"_ it read. I looked down to see the dates. _"May 18__th__-25__th__ in Ghirardelli Square."_

I smiled up at Fang. He smiled back and folded the paper back up and put it in his pocket.

"A chocolate festival, eh?" I asked. He nodded. "I could live with that."

"It starts tomorrow," Fang stated. "I thought that you and the kids would like it."

"What about you? You like chocolate." He nodded again.

"That could have been a reason, too," he admitted. "So what do you think?"

I paused before answering. I looked back out to the water and the famous big red bridge. "I think that can be a possibility." I was trying not to sound too excited for this but it was really hard. I mean, it was a _chocolate_ festival!

--

I breathed in a warm, delicious smell of San Francisco air. Let me tell you, it was absolutely _amazing_. I was very happy Fang had showed me that flyer. The night before, the Flock and I had decided to stop in this very town (well, we had business here anyway) and it just so happened that they were having a chocolate festival starting today and lasting the whole week. Lucky, right? I think they waited for me, I really do.

I looked around Ghirardelli Square and at all of the different stands and advertisements. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I took a look at my Flock. Angel was looking wide-eyed at everything, clinging a bear Fang had bought her to her chest and pointing at different stands. Nudge just looked overwhelmed with excitement and was (oh my gosh) speechless. Gazzy was explaining everything to Iggy and I could tell they were both _really_ happy.

I turned around to see Fang walking slowly behind us. I waited for him to catch up and I gave him the thumbs-up sign.

"I've got to say, this is your best idea yet," I complimented him.

Fang smiled a smile that gave my heart a little tug and looked around. I could tell that he was enjoying himself. We had already had a few samples from different booths and we were anxious to get some more chocolaty goodness. I looked up to the sound of my name being called by little bird kids. Fang and I caught up to the others who were standing at a booth.

"Max, you have got to check this out!" Nudge said. "Its way cool!"

I read the description and raised an eyebrow. "Chocolate…_soda_?"

Nudge and Angel nodded in excitement. "Let's try some!"

I cringed. Chocolate was good and all but…this seemed a little over the top. The man at the booth handed samples to all of us. Before I took a swig of it I turned towards Fang and gave him a skeptic look. He just shrugged his shoulders and drank the sample from the paper cup. I followed suit.

"Oh my God, isn't it good?" Nudge asked.

I held my breath, hoping I wouldn't throw up or anything. I smiled, eyes watering. "It's uh…fizzy." I said. I took a glance at Fang. He looked mortified. We quickly threw our cups away and left the booth.

The remainder of the stands were pretty good. For the ones we tried, anyway. I just couldn't force myself to eat chocolate covered ants. Too gross. I started to get a weird feeling. Like I was being followed…or watched. I dunno. Paranoia of always being in danger, I guess. Living like a lab rat for the majority of your life does that to ya.

Every once and a while I'd see Gazzy point to someone and whisper something to Iggy. He would nod slowly and keep walking. Had they seen something bad? Angel sensed my tenseness and walked beside me, taking my hand. I looked down at her and smiled. I think she was getting a little nervous too. And to tell ya the truth, I was getting a little claustrophobic.

I took a glance at someone standing in a booth. He was wearing sunglasses but I got this weird feeling his eyes were watching us. I looked forward and watched him out of the corner of my eye and I saw through the side of his glasses. He _was_ watching us. My heart almost stopped as he pulled his arm up to his face and started whispering to his watch. Either he was crazy or he was telling someone of our position. I leaned into Fang and whispered into his ear.

"We've got to get out of here."

He looked at my worried face and nodded. We just kinda have this connection when there's danger. Someone says "I think I'm gonna die" and the other one kinda dies too. It's a heartwarming relationship, I have to say.

Once we turned the corner, I gathered the Flock together.

"Okay, guys. I hate to say this, but we've gotta scat." I heard groans. I felt bad for not only them but for me, too. There was no way in heck I wanted to leave this place. But we kind of had to. "Once we find a safe palace, up and away, got it?"

Nods filled my vision and we quickly started to make our way out of the crowd. We got really close to leaving when someone stepped out in front of us and I ran into him. I stepped back a little, Fang catching my arm. I was about to give a quick apology when I started to see the man morphing. _I thought they were gone_, I wondered. I panicked. No time to not make a scene.

"Up and away!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Within seconds my Flock was up in the air and I was taking a blow to the face from a really harry force-filled paw. I fell into the wall behind me and then ran up giving a swift kick to the face. The Eraser grabbed his bleeding nose and groaned.

I was about ready to take another swing when Fang came up behind him, chopping his neck. The Eraser crumpled to the ground. Fang grabbed my hand and we ran around the corner.

"What's with the Eraser?" I asked. Fang shrugged.

"Itex is crazy?" Well no duh, wise guy.

We both ran into a brick wall (figuratively) and jumped into the air, snapping out our wings almost perfectly together and we went up and joined the group. I looked down, no one seemed to be flying into the air so I guess these were like the old Erasers and couldn't fly.

"We have to find Dr. Lyon's house," I told the Flock. "I'm pretty sure he said that it was at the very southern tip of San Francisco." I saw more nods. "Follow-."

I placed a hand on my head and I lost about a foot of altitude. The others just stared at me.

"Are you okay, Max?" Nudge asked. And honestly, I had absolutely no idea. All I knew was that I felt like I had the worst headache in the universe. I started hearing the Voice but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Just bits and pieces of cut off words. It sounded like a broken record. I shut my eyes tightly. Fang came down to me and picked me up. I stopped flapping.

"Is it…?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know," I said. The pain in my head became worse and spread through my body. I let out a half shriek, half groan. "Just…Dr. Lyons. I think- think he…just go!" I felt my throat closing up and I started to lose air fast. This was it. I remembered the date that the poster had said. Today was May 18th. May was the fifth month, right? May was the fifth month and I had the numbers _05-18-08_ imprinted on my neck. My expiration date was…today.


	19. One Last Wish

He gently laid her on the table and backed up. His eyes were dark, his heart throbbing. Every feeling in his body tensed up. The others watched from a distance, knowing not to interfere. He watched as the doctor stepped up to the table, tools in hand. He placed a mask over the girl's face. He then hooked monitors up to the girl. Her heartbeat was very slow, very steady. Too steady. The boy watched as the doctor shot a needle into the girl's hand. He noticed how her opposite hand gave a slight flintch. It was enough to calm him down a little.

"You guys need to leave now," the doctor said, turning around to the kids. Without any comment, they turned and left. All of them. All except _him_. He would stay. "You need to leave, too," the doctor commanded. The boy just stood there, expressionless, staring at the girl. There was no way he'd leave. Not now, not ever. Not again.

The doctor turned back around and began his work. He was silent and worked alone. No one else knew the design as well as he did. No one else knew the plan. Only him. This doctor was their only hope. The only one who could save this poor young girl. The doctor's palms began to sweat. If he couldn't save her, he knew that the world would go along with her.

Hours passed. Hours that felt like lifetimes. The boy sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room and watched. Never once did his gaze leave the girl. Never once did his ears give up on listening to the monitor. That blessed monitor that reminded him she was still alive, he still had hope, she still had a chance.

The doctor sighed and left the table, gloves bloody from hours of surgery. "I do know how to fix it," he said. "I could probably fix the problem without surgery now that I know how to reverse it." Fang looked up to Dr. Lyons with almost a look of plea. The man pressed his lips together. Fang looked over to the girl on the operation table. She was pale, her body drained…life drained. The beeping on the monitor had stopped.

He stood up and walked over to the girl, holding her hand in his.

"Sometimes you can't fix the past and sometimes you can't prepare for the future. In this case you couldn't do either and you're going to have to deal with it. But there's one thing you can always count on, Max. I love you."

Fang leaned over and placed a soft, tender kiss on the girl's lips before leaving the room. His eyes burned but he hid the tears. He couldn't cry in front of the others. He had to be strong. After all, that's what they would have wanted, anyway.

He stepped out of the room and took a glance at the Flock. Their faces were scared and tired. Heartbroken and torn. He couldn't stand it. Fang quickly walked down the hall and upstairs of the laboratory where the house was. He ran up to the rooms they were given and slammed the door to his behind him. He went over to the window and opened up the windows, peering out into the night sky. The stars sparkled in the sky in a way that reminded him of those brown eyes he'll now never get to see again.

A breeze blew in through the windows and onto Fang's face. He stood on the edge and jumped, not snapping out his wings until the absolute last second. And he soared out into the midnight sky. His figure disappeared into the darkness as the stars seemed to fade. A glimpse of light caught his eye.

_Please don't leave me. I pray you'll always stay. 'Cause we, we have been best friends…don't let it end._

* * *

**SHORTEST CHAPTER OF THE WHOLE ENTIRE STORY! Yeah, like only 650 words or so. THE STORY IS NOT FINISHED! Just throwing that out there. And why would I kill off Max? Who said I killed her? Haha. I'll update in a few weeks. -foreverandalwaysyours**


	20. Awakening

**A/N: Sorry about the long wait! I was in the world of no internet access. Well, they have internet, but I was without my computer. I was in Hawaii! And I was rereading MAX 'cause I'm doing a book report on it and I had to pay attention to literary crud and it was funny reading about how she saw Pearl Harbor as I passed Pearl Harbor. I dunno. Anyway…chapter 20! And thanks for all the reviews!!!- foreverandalwaysyours**

* * *

It's not very often that I feel completely out of it. But when I woke up, I freaked. I was sure I remembered settling down in a nice, safe tree and sleeping- Fang keeping first watch. But that's sooo not where I woke up.

For one, I was in a bed, not a tree. Second, I was in a room with tan walls, a dresser, side table, closet and squishy white carpeting. Lastly I had a really, really sharp pain in my right side near my hip. I sat up, too fast, and felt my head spin (not literally, my dear readers- I may be part bird but I don't think its owl…maybe hawk or eagle…). I groaned. Where the heck was I?

"Max?"

Still too dizzy to move my head again, I replied with another groan. I felt the right side of my bed sink as someone sat next to me. A hand traced up my back and to my neck. I felt fingers gently entwining with my hair. I slowly turned my head to see who was next to me, almost cursing for my vulnerability of the moment.

"What's going on?" I asked Fang. My voice was oddly sore and hoarse to my surprise and it startled me. I also realized that my mouth was extremely dry and I felt drained and extremely hungry. But the thought of food just didn't agree with my stomach at the moment. What was wrong with me?

Fang's voice was soft and comforting. Just like it was when he'd talk Angel to sleep and rock her back and forth. Speaking of which, where was everyone else? My heart quickened to a state of panic as I scanned the room again. We were the only ones in here. I stood up and felt the squishy carpet between my toes. But what I also felt was a quick and unforgiving pain in my hip. I sat down again.

"We're at Dr. Lyons's house in San Francisco. Remember the chocolate festival? We were there last week."

I quickly searched my brain for the moment. Yeah…the chocolate soda (gross by the way- I don't suggest it). Then we fought off some Erasers. A week ago? Why couldn't I remember the past week? And what was with the Erasers? Weren't they retired? Ari was the last one and he died a while ago. Is the reason why my hip hurt because I was injured in battle?

"Fang?" I asked, rubbing my temples. His eyes met mine. "When we saw the Erasers…did I, like, get hurt?"

Fang pressed his lips together and shook his head. Now I was really confused. "You kind of…passed out in the air," he mentioned. I looked at him like he was crazy. It wasn't _that_ crazy because I know I've done that before. But that was way back when, when I first started hearing the Voice and we had just left Colorado. "You didn't just pass out, though. You kind of…died…"

I sank a little in my seat and Fang scooted closer. "Okay," I said, trying to figure this whole thing out. "We went to San Francisco and fought off Erasers, I remember that. But…why did I pass out? It was the chocolate, wasn't it? Too much sugar? Overload? Did I like, OD on it? I needed protein? I probably just got too tired. But I didn't die. If I did then I'd be in bird kid heaven and there'd be, like, ice cream and an all you can eat buffet and pretty lights and…God? You don't look like God."

Fang chuckled. Then his face got all serious and gloomy. Kind of like the look he had on his face when we found that little girl passed out in the van. "Do you remember anything before that?"

I nodded. "Yeah…I remember getting mad at you, and getting mad at you again…and again… and that lady in the van and meeting Dr. Lyons and your mom-."

"Do you remember this?" Fang cut me off and pulled something out from his pocket. It was a little bottle with cream in it. The front said "Vanishing Cream". Ohhhhhhh…

"What's the date?" I asked, _this close_ to almost understanding this mess.

"May 26th." The date on the back of my neck had been May 18th. It was my expiration date. I'd passed out that same day in San Francisco due to my expiration date. But how was I still here? I should be buried in a deep, dark hole with flowers and "I Love Max" cards and tears just like my half brother, Ari (minus the cards, of course). Why wasn't I?

Fang read my face like a book and went on to explain. "After you passed out we raced here and brought you to Dr. Lyons. He said that he'd been working on something to help reverse or stop the expiration date but he hadn't quite come up with too much yet. So he said it would be a good opportunity to see if what he thought up really worked. It didn't…kind of."

There was a knock on the door and it opened slightly, exposing a head belonging to the one and only Dr. Lyons. A.K.A.: the dude who saved my life. My mom followed in after him with a bright smile and a tray full of chocolate chip cookies. I _was_ in heaven. Then Jeb entered the room. A girl can only dream…

My mom sat on the other side of me and Fang and I each took a cookie and wolfed them down and started on the rest of the tray. Meanwhile, Dr. Lyons started talking about what Fang had left out.

"I see you're up," he began. "You've been a heavy sleeper. I think it was from all of the Oxicodone and Valium-."

I almost gagged on my cookie. "Valium?!" Fang grinned and stretched his hands apart a little. If I had the energy, he'd be on the ground with a bloody nose and possibly one or more broken ribs. Boyfriend or not I still don't wanna remember that day. "Why was I heavily medicated?"

"You had surgery. When Fang and the others brought you up here, you weren't exactly in the best condition. I opened up your right side to find a place where there was quite a bit of blood flow and tissue, ignoring your heart because of how fragile it is. I worked on taking out blood and tissue samples and injecting a chemical into them to work as an antibiotic then injecting it back into your blood stream. You see, your expiration dates are nothing more than a disease that the scientists at Itex whipped up and evolved into your DNA to give you a certain life span. They created it when Angel was given to them because that's when they started to categorize you as 'failed experiments'. I also scraped off a part of your hip bone to use as a part of the next formula I'm working on."

"What's wrong with the antibiotic you injected in me all ready?"

My mom sighed and Dr. Lyons stiffened up a little. "It failed. It's only temporary. You're life span at this very moment is only about a month. I have until then to figure out how to create an antibiotic to clear up this disease. At the moment, what you have is deadlier than any disease known to man. And unlike some incurable diseases like AIDS or Multiple Sclerosis, there isn't really much any medicines can do to help make the disease dormant for a long period of time. So I have to work very quickly. That's why I have Jeb and your mother here and that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping you'd get here before the 18th but that didn't work as planned."

I shook my head. I only had a month? A lousy month? That's it? And if my guessing was dead on, Fang and Iggy didn't have too much longer either. Who knows how long? I didn't even know how these wackos determined the death date. This story was getting worse and worse as it went along. "So what triggers this disease to just suddenly kill you? What's with the dates? How does it know?"

Jeb stepped in. "I'm not exactly sure how they made it possible, which is a reason why it's so hard to cure. But we do know that the disease was designed to terminate you, human-avian-hybrids, on your 15th birthday."

Terminate? That's a pleasant word to use, way to be Jeb. "You know, most kids get, like, their driving permit or fancy jewelry or a nice dinner and concert tickets for their fifteenth birthday. What do I get? A lovely new tattoo on my neck and hip and a field trip to the Pearly Gates to have a picnic with my good friend St. Peter. Life's great, isn't it?"

Everyone in the room looked at me for a moment before turning back to whatever they were doing. My mom set the now empty tray of cookies on the bed and straightened out her apron, Dr. Lyons checked his PDA, Jeb was probably thinking up ways he could cheer me up (he will fail- I don't care what it is), and Fang was just sitting there being Fang and…blending in with the room…

I nudged him a little and he sat up. "Max?" I looked up. I saw someone poke their head into the room. It was Angel. I smiled at her and opened my arms a little. Her little curls bounced as she ran over and hugged me. I winced a little from impact on my hip but shrugged it off. Behind her came Iggy, Nudge, Ella and Gazzy.

"So when will this new treatment thingy be ready?" I asked. Everyone's gazes went up and met the face of the only one who could possibly save the six of us.

"It'll be ready in a week or so," he said. "Then it'll be ready to be tested."

I stood up and walked up to the doctor, ignoring the weird pain from having a part of my hip removed. "I'll be ready."

Dr. Lyons shook his head. "No, Max. You're still going to be too weak." I heard a cough come from someone in the room. I locked my eyes with the doctor's. "I was thinking about testing someone else."

I raised an eyebrow. "This vaccine…it could possibly kill or make one of us really sick…couldn't it?" Dr. Lyons nodded. "Then you're testing it on me."

"I was going to test it on Angel. She's young, strong and very, very powerful. She could recover quicker than any of you if she got-."

"No," I interrupted. I could hear Angel trying to send me thoughts. All I could make out was "I'm scared. I don't know. Don't make the decision now." Just bits and pieces of things. But when I heard "I'm scared", that made my mind up for me. "You're not touching her!" I shouted. "She's too little and too young and she's probably been through more crap than any of us here. You're _not_ testing on her. You're testing on me."

"Max-."

"I said no," I replied, cutting off my mom. "I'm not going to risk the lives of anyone in my flock on an attempt to save our lives. I have the least amount of time to live out of anyone here and I'm the leader so I'm taking the vaccine."

"That's exactly why you shouldn't." I looked up, shocked to hear Fang's voice arguing against mine. Well, that wasn't that much of a surprise but I was irritated to hear him going against my will…again. I turned my body and faced him.

"What do you mean? I'm gonna die anyway so-."

"Max, you're not going to die. And besides, _you're_ the one out of all of us who needs to live the most. You're the one who's supposed to save the world, remember? I'll take the vaccine."

Of course, now he's on board with the saving the world ship. I actually liked the deserted island routine he brought up better. Who switched us?

"You die when they die," I said, remembering what he told me not too long ago. I was supposed to die when they died but that didn't look possible from any angle so I wasn't risking anyone else's life.

"One of us has to take it," he said.

Fang and I were now face to face in an argument on who was going to die first. Jeez. "I'm taking it and that's final! None of you are going to die for this!" My outburst sent the room into a silence. My mom looked to the floor and everyone else looked towards me. Fang stared into my eyes and let out a breath. I felt warm air on my face and it made me shiver.

"Okay," he said, barely audible. "If that's _really_ what you want…then I think that's what's best. You are the leader."

I was about to turn around and try to take a flight out of here when Fang grabbed my arm and leaned over, kissing me. I felt my breath leave me, just like any other time we'd kissed but this time I felt something else. I felt a drop of water fall onto my cheek and roll down my face. But I wasn't the one crying. Fang was.

After another brief moment, I stepped back and broke the kiss. I could feel stares of everyone else in the room fall on me and Fang and after our little scene, I don't blame them.

"Okay," I said, turning towards Dr. Lyons and Jeb. "I'm your victim."

* * *

**A/N: I know the quote from book…was it 2?...wasn't exact but yeah. "You die when we die" "You die when they die"- it all works, right? **


	21. The New Voice

**A/N: ALERT! SHORT CHAPTER! I'm going off of a limb here. I really have no plan for the future of the story (well, now I do- earlier I didn't- note almost 2 weeks with no updates). Soooooo- this story is actually gonna get kinda creepy. Just beware. Melting people aren't weird enough for me…kidding. Enjoy the short chapter as I think up the next one.**

After waking up from pure oblivion, sleep isn't really your friend. Of course, that's because you felt like you were asleep for the past century. And if you didn't know, after getting part of your hp and blood and body tissue removed, your mobility is severely limited. Even if you are an enhanced bird kid. Shocking, isn't it? So I was wide awake in my own personal room at midnight without any way of transportation. Through a little bit of claustrophobia and worry into that and what do you get? Paranoia. My favorite thing in the world these days. If you know me, you know that this isn't the best situation for me.

There was a quiet knock on my door once again and light from the hallway light up a section of my wall and carpet. My visitor? Take a wild guess.

"Yo Max," Fang said, standing by the now closed door. "Wanna go for a spin?" Really? Is he serious? Jerk.

"Uh, if you haven't noticed, I can't exactly function properly at the moment. Did that whole death-surgery-life-pain experience slip? I can show you proof if you want. I have a pretty nice battle wound."

Fang smiled in a way that could make the world freeze just to take a longer glance.

"I could carry you," he insisted. I raised an eyebrow. Says the guy who has to hand off an 80 pound Malamute after thirty minutes. I'm like…what? 103? "We won't go too far. Just to the coast. Take another look at that bridge."

I really, really wanted to say no and stay in the comfort of my bed but the thought of being completely alone with Fang (plus Bambi eyes- of all things) made me cave in under ten seconds. New record. Brilliant.

Before I could change my mind (smart boy), Fang had opened the window and had me in his arms. We took off into the cool midnight, starry sky. The wind going through my hair felt sooo unbelievably good. It took all of my strength not to snap out my wings and freefall, swooping back into the air at the last second before going SPLAT! onto the ground.

I have to say, San Francisco is an absolutely remarkable city from way up high. And yes, I've flown above it at night before, but somehow it was different this time. It may have something to do with me being on medication for pain, me just realizing my new shining inner "Oh my gosh look at the world"-ness, or me being alone with Fang and it being…kinda…romantic? Whatever it was I didn't care. I just took it all in and breathed the nice fresh midnight air.

After about twenty minutes or so of flying, Fang and I reached this big grassy hill that overlooked the city. You know, like the kind people stand on to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge for postcards? Yeah, that's what we were looking at. Pretty epic, right?

I laid on my stomach, leaning to my left to avoid my right hip, and leaned against Fang. He was sitting tilting back looking out at the bridge, holding himself up by his elbows which were behind him. It was totally quiet. The only things I could hear were the occasional cars passing by from way out there, crickets and the faint breathing of both me and Fang.

"Whatchya thinking about?" Fang said quietly. Well, our whole conversation was quiet. So just think nice, quiet night.

I shrugged, my head in my hands. "I'm just trying to figure everything out, I guess. The vaccine, the Erasers, what we're going to do once we get out of here. I'm thinking we're not going to go to Hawaii. Unless Dr. Voice says otherwise."

"Dang." Fang stared down at me with a really, _really_ depressed look on his face. "I was looking forward to, like, surfing and paragliding."

I nudged him with my elbow. "I wish." There were those words again. This was beginning to be a new theme for me. I looked to the sky. Nothing shot across it. No glimmer of hope for the night. No momentary burst of wishful thinking.

_You don't have to see a shooting star to make a wish_, I heard. Add a HUGE groan to selected scene.

_Dr. Lyons, could you, like, I don't know…give me my own little alone moment. I mean the ONE time you show up-._ I stopped in mid thought. That voice didn't sound like the Voice. It actually sounded like a voice. A real one. It wasn't mine, either. It was deep, dark and haunting. A new voice. Was I finally at my breaking point? What was going on?

"Max?" I looked over to Fang. I guess I was making a weird face so I shook my head a little.

"Migraine," I lied. "Painful."

"Do you want to go back?" I shook my head.

"Just a minute."

_Who the heck are you and what are you doing in my mind? And don't tell me I'm not allowed to know because I am. It's _my_ brain and you're invading _my_ privacy._

I got no response. Maybe I was going crazy. I looked around. No one else was here. Just me. Just Fang. No one else. I carefully sat up and leaned into Fang again. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders as I shivered a little and he kissed my forehead.

"You okay?" I nodded, not knowing if I was lying or telling the truth. It's hard to really know anymore.

Okay, so the Erasers were back for some reason and I had a new enemy trying to control my mind. I was in the middle of San Francisco dying and waiting for this doctor (who turns out to be the one who thought up the whole bird kid idea- btw) to find a vaccine. I had to try and think up an idea of what to do next after we got out of San Francisco. Find this new enemy of mine? Trick him into telling me who he is and where he came from?

_Nothing is always as it seems, Max._ I heard again. I froze and stared out ahead of me, trying to concentrate. I could feel Fang staring at me like I was some freak possessed by some, oh I don't know, voice in my head or something. But that's IMPOSSIBLE!! _Not everyone who says they're on your side is on your side. Watch out. Don't take any chances. Question everything. Not even the ones you're closest to are safe._

My head slowly rotated to look at Fang. He raised an eyebrow. I smiled really big and he laughed a little. "You're really weird," he said. Shocker.

_Watch your back. Get out of here. Now._

**A/N: (again): Okay. "Don't go back there. Get out of here. Now." Ever seen the movie "Secret Window"? It has Johnny Depp (I hate him- btw). Sorry, side note there. **


	22. Jeb

**IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Yes, I changed my pen name thingy. Whatever it's called. Why? I didn't want a girly, sissy name like foreverandalwaysyours. Yes, I'm a girl but it just felt too girly and frou-frou. You know what I mean? Anyway, here's the next chapter:**

* * *

I don't know about you, but the thought of having _three_ voices invading my head (two of which aren't mine) doesn't settle well with my…well, anything. After the little "You can't trust anyone" speech, I looked over to Fang and asked him if we could get back home. I told him that I didn't feel well and that I was in a lot of pain. This was actually a lie. I felt fine (maybe not mentally…) but I was in no pain…yet. So he flew me back and set me down on my bed and kissed me goodnight.

It was about one thirty in the morning when we got back and I got absolutely NO sleep after my little experience. I mean, who could sleep after something like that? So when I heard feet moving around the house at around seven, I thought it would be okay for me to, very slowly, make my way down the stairs and into the living room. I sat down on the couch in front of the TV and watched the news while we all ate loads and loads of pancakes.

"Hey Max?" Nudge asked mouth full of syrupy goodness. I turned my head towards her and raised my eyebrows. "What are we going to do next? You know, after we find the cure to the retirement disease? Are we still going to Hawaii?"

DE JA VU. I shook my head. "I don't really know yet. I'm not sure about Hawaii." I looked at Dr. Lyons. "Unless we like, need to be there."

The doctor stopped chewing suddenly and swallowed. "Actually, I need you all to stay here for more time. You know, just to make sure that the vaccine works the way it should and no one gets sick from it. Besides, I'm not quite sure how long it'll take to come up with the right vaccine. I have at least one more to test."

"Then we're on our own again, right?" Iggy asked. We all turned and stared at the man. He looked nervous.

"I can't answer that. Not just yet."

I was about to ask why not when I remembered that voice from last night. I couldn't trust the ones I was closest to. Well, I wasn't really all that close to Dr. Lyons so I don't think he was a problem. But he was still keeping something from all of us and it was bugging me. And you'd better believe I was going to get to the bottom of this or my name isn't Maximum Ride.

And by now you all should know that I get to the bottom of _everything_ no matter what extreme I have to put myself and the others through. Usually those extremes involve breaking bones, getting bloody noses and really, really annoyed adults who don't necessarily like to put up with our abnormal, questioning and rude behavior. It's all part of the bird- kid package. You buy it, we give it. That's all there is too it. And if they can't take it, well that's too dang bad for them.

I finished my helpings of food and slowly made my way to the front porch. It was a very sunshiny day in May and quite warm for so early in the morning. Shorts and a t-shirt fit the moment perfectly. So guess what I was wearing? I was accompanied on the bench by my mother, the vet (laughter optional), Dr. Martinez. She sat down next to me and put her arm around my shoulders, sitting on my left side, appropriately. She placed a soft kiss on my forehead then sighed.

"It sure is a beautiful day," she said, smiling. I loved my mom. Not just because she's my mom but because she's the most amazing person in the world. I truly mean that. She's always been there for me (well…you know what I mean) and, to my surprise, never rejected me. I guess that was a little something she worked out with Jeb before I was 'born'. "You know I used to live here?" I raised my eyebrows. "I was about your age. My parents, sister and I moved here for my father's job. He was a journalist and was hired here. It was hard to move away from all of my friends but I made a lot of new ones. One of my first and best friends here, believe it or not, was Jeb."

I was shocked. They've known each other since high school? He was one of her first friends when she moved here? Well, you learn something new every day. Then a question popped in my head. It was one that I had been wondering for a while now. Ever since I found out that Jeb and Dr. Martinez were my real parents.

"Mom?" it was still weird calling her that. But she looked over to me and smiled softly. "This has been on my mind for a while. You know how, like, people have kids when they're married and, well, love each other?" I could see her face slowly release the smile into a look of 'I know where this is going' tone. "Do you…or did you- love Jeb? You know, like, when you guys decided that you'd uh…make me?"

I couldn't find the right words for that one. They never got married and the never really…had me the way normal people have kids. I was part of a mixture in a test tube. It was an odd subject and I didn't really know how to approach it. My mom was probably expecting it though. She sighed again and looked out to the blue sky and past the front deck which was slightly shaded by a roof.

"_Did_ I love Jeb?" she began. "Honestly, yes. I did. He was my best friend. We went through high school together and kept in touch all throughout college. Then he called me up one day and told me to meet him in Nevada to help him with a special assignment. And that special assignment was you."

I thought about what she said. So she loved Jeb. Okay. But that's it? Did he love her? Did they plan raising me? Apparently not. I was just a science experiment. She had left Jeb in charge of who I became and had no part in raising me. It suddenly sounded really harsh and cruel. I had confused myself without trying. That wasn't hard but I was confused in a whole different way. Didn't she…want me then?

"Did you ever tell Jeb that you loved him?"

She shook her head and kept staring out at the sky. "I couldn't. I didn't know why but I felt that it wasn't the right time. I felt that something big was going to come out of it. I knew that he and Dr. Lyons had this plan to create you to save the world and I knew that he'd have to be the one to raise and influence you. It wasn't my place to be at Itex. I was a vet, not a scientist. I thought that my part was finished. That I would help Jeb out with this one part and then be done. I never thought that I'd be so involved or attached. After I got word that you had been born in the sense that you were a baby, my heart was torn. I wanted to see you so bad but I wasn't allowed to. You were a top secret project and I wasn't allowed to interfere.

"Jeb made me a promise that day. He promised me that he'd take care of you, teach you everything essential to your survival and teach you how to be a leader. Max, I know you hate Jeb now after all that you've been through, but please believe me. He's not the bad guy here. Not at all. He had to put you through all of that to get you ready-."

"I know," I interrupted. "It's a _test_."

"Hun…not just for you. But for him. He needed to figure out the best way to keep you alive and that was the only way to do so. If he hadn't put you through all of the crap you went through at Itex and kept you for himself after you were created you would have been killed. They would have suspected something was up. You were created to save the world. They know that now, but they didn't then. And the world would have a death sentence now if you had died then. But because you're not, because of what Jeb did for you and the others, the world can be saved. By you, Fang, Angel, Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy. All of you. And if it weren't for Jeb putting you through everything then you'd be gone, the world would be gone, and I wouldn't have been able to meet my very special, very precious daughter."

My mom looked down to me and smiled again. Her eyes were slightly watery and she looked sorry, forgiving and…proud. Honestly, I'd never thought of it that way. She explained it in a light that made Jeb seem…human. Not monster-like or cruel or heartless. He did what he did to save us? Why hadn't he told me this to begin with? Wait…he had. I just hadn't listened.

"He's mad at me, isn't he?" I asked.

My mom laughed a little and gave me a quick hug. "No, he's not mad. He understands. You just need time to get used to it all. In life you need to take chances and one of his was to let you go so that he could save you. He knew this would happen. Believe me; we spent many nights on the phone talking about this whole decision before we decided to go through with the whole plan. If anything, Max, your father loves you more than anything else in the world. He does what he does because he loves you."

Because he loves me. Jeb loves me. My _father_ loves me. My father loves me and I've been a complete jerk to him. He never gave up on me but I never gave him a chance. It wasn't fair. My mom was right. Taking chances is a part of life and it was something I had to learn maybe even on my own. But boy was I getting a life lesson now. Not just that but a guilt building up inside me that I thought was going to kill me. And the more guilt I felt, the more worry I felt. I could also feel a tension growing. An odd, growing tension that was something foreign to me.

I wondered if I was just getting sick from all of the pancakes I had eaten recently but realized that it wasn't just my stomach that was hurting. It was my hip (which was reasonable), my head, my eyes, my throat and every other little eensy-teensy part of my body. I felt like throwing up. _You still can't trust him,_ I heard. _You still can't trust him_. Those words played in my mind over and over like a broken record. I couldn't trust Jeb? That thought wasn't new but it was from that same voice. The one I heard just earlier this morning when I was with Fang. Was I supposed to not get close to Jeb? My dad? Maybe I received the warning at the right time then. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to trust him but I had to find out where this message was coming from first. Until then, I guessed I had to keep my guard up and not give in just yet no matter how much I wanted to. Taking chances can be helpful and promising in the future, but as for the present, they were like treading through water in the dark with no life boat. If you make one false move, you drown. If I made one false trust, I'm a dead birdie. _We wouldn't want that now would we, Max?_

* * *

**Ooooooo…spooky. Psh, not really. I tried my best on this chapter but I personally don't like it. That's our little secret though. Authors aren't supposed to say that haha. -burnoutbright**


	23. Enemies and Allies

**I'M SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN FOREVER!!! I've been wayyyyy busy with this really big crappy project (A.K.A.- BCP- Biology Capstone Project). It sucked up all of my time. But here's the next chapter! Another new character, sorry. But here ya go. -burnoutbright**

* * *

There came the glorious day where I woke up feeling refreshed, happy and full of energy…

And it all went downhill from that first breath of morning air. Betchya already guessed that one though, didn't chya? Smarty pants. Stop reading ahead! But yes, I was feeling great, amazing, like my hip wasn't torn out of me. Then came those stupid words from that stupid doctor who stupidly decided to create us in effort to save the stupid world.

"Now that you're feeling better, Max, I think it's time to test out that new vaccine."

I groaned louder than needed and sank into the couch next to Fang. He squeezed my knee and smiled. I stared at him until the smile went away. Fang. He's dark, mysterious, keeps things to himself and the only times he decides to smile are the times where I'm in trouble. Or was that caring? Noooo. Fang doesn't show his emotions! What is the world coming to?

Angel walked into the room and yawned. She had a bright smile on her face and stood right in front of me.

"Guess what?" she asked, almost devilishly. I cringed. "I think I've developed another skill!"

The room went quiet and everyone in the Flock plus the extras turned to look at her. Gazzy looked almost intrigued; Nudge looked like she was holding back something REALLY unimportant to say and the rest of us just looked absolutely horrified.

"And what's that, Sweetie?" I asked. I think I asked. I didn't even remember thinking it. Did I think it?

Confused I narrowed my eyes and glared at the little demon conveniently named _Angel_. She let out a little giggle and skipped off to the kitchen to gobble down some pancakes she sooo didn't deserve right now. Everyone's eyes made their ways to me.

"What did she do?" Iggy questioned.

I sighed. "She can make people say things without them actually thinking about saying them."

Everyone seemed to understand. I could tell by the fear on their faces. Who knows what secrets could be pouring out of someone's mouth now?

"You know," Angel said with a mouth full of pancakes, "this really could have come in handy before you and Fang started this whole dating thing. Then I could have _made_ you tell each other you loved each other. Then you wouldn't have had to fight about it all the time. And you wouldn't have run off all the time whenever Fang kissed you and-."

I shot a death glare at the kid and she shut up. I felt my face become hot and my mom looked like she was about to laugh. I got up and stormed out of the room. Halfway up the stairs I could hear the laugh of a certain eight-year-old. _Gazzy_.

This day was just going to get worse and worse, wasn't it?

_You need to leave now, Max. _

I stopped at the stop of the staircase and froze. That voice was back. It wasn't Dr. Lyons, I was sure of that. And it had the creepiest voice. I recognized that voice. But where?

_What do you want?_ I thought back, hoping it could hear me just like the Voice could.

_I need you to get out of there. It's not safe. The people aren't safe there, Max. I need you to come back. I know they're not safe. Just look at what they did to me. Because of them I'm dead. If it weren't for them I'd be alive. I'd probably be with you right now. Max, they killed me. "_Daddy killed me."

The last three words were spoken out loud. Weren't they? I turned around and almost fell over from shock. I rubbed my eyes. This couldn't be real. There was no way. There, before me was someone who looked exactly like…_him._ Ari. My half-brother. The one who I killed and then was brought back and then died because of his expiration date. I thought it was a figment of my imagination but it looked so real. Only he looked tired and worn. Just like he did before he died. He was stuck between human and Eraser form and he was all scraped up and bloody. Images of that prison in Germany and at the School raced through my brain over and over.

"A-Ari?" I asked, my voice shaking. "How…?"

"You need to leave, Max," he said. "Get out of here. They're going to kill you like they killed me."

I turned around and started to run down the hallway but something stopped me. _Someone_.

"I'm serious. _Dead_ serious. Get. Out. Now."

Wasn't he just behind me? I was totally losing it. I started to make my way to my bedroom when he grabbed my hand. It was like an Eraser's hand, like a paw, but I could feel the skin of his human form. I also felt warm liquid around my wrist. His hands were bleeding. I tried to yank my hand free but couldn't. He was too strong.

"Let me go!"

Ari punched me in the face and I fell to the floor, spitting out blood. My vision had become blurry and I was now only looking at a figure in front of me. I knew who it was but all I could see was the outline of the body. That was the last thing I saw before I passed out.

--

"Good morning, Maximum," I heard.

My eyes shot open and I scoped out my surroundings. I was in a metal room on a cold surface. I couldn't move my hands. They were strapped to the table I was lying on. Where was I? A man walked up to me. He was tall and slim and held a clipboard and a pen. He was writing things down and glancing at me every once and a while. Then he turned to a woman behind him. She was blond with blue eyes. She was actually quite pretty. I might have complimented to her about how shiny her hair was if she wasn't evil. I knew that she was. After 15 years of this kind of thing, you just kinda get a vibe from certain people.

"She's quite weak," the man said, checking his clipboard and flipping through papers. "We found a scar on her right hip. Bone grafting, possibly. Either that or someone took it for a sample. We're suspecting it was Dr. Lyons. Have you gotten any answers from him since his arrest?"

The woman shook her head. Wait. Arrest? They arrested Dr. Lyons? But why? Oh…I was probably in some Itex facility. Shoot. If they finally found him that means that they've also gotten my mom, sister and Flock. They've probably really hurt them. And they've probably found all of Dr. Lyons's vaccines. I groaned.

"Did you say something, Maximum?" the man asked, looking up. His nametag read Dr. Reid Athens.

"No," I snapped. "Where's my Flock? What did you do to them?"

Reid smiled and lowered his clipboard. "Don't worry, Maximum. We haven't harmed your friends. They're all fine. They're not the ones we want, anyway."

"Then what _do_ you want?"

"You, of course. Haven't you figured this out by now? You're the most powerful human being in the world and people would do anything just to get their hands on you. Now that we do have you and now that that doctor of yours is out of the way, we have the power to destroy Itex."

Now I was really confused. If these people weren't Itex then who were they? And why did they want to destroy Itex? Every aspect of my life was falling apart right in front of my face and there was nothing I could do about it. I just kept losing it and losing it and everywhere I turned someone else wanted to kidnap me for their own evil experiments. Yeah, make a band of superhuman, hybrid avian humans. Way to go, Dr. Lyons. You're a _genius_.

"So if you're not with Itex and you obviously don't like Dr. Lyons…then who _are_ you?"

"We're on your side, Maximum," the doctor said. I raised an eyebrow. Yeah. That's why I'm chained to a table. Is this the new way to greet people? Have I missed something over the past year that I've been living in caves? "Dr. Lyons isn't who you think he is. He's a liar. He works with Itex."

"You've got it all wrong, buddy. He _worked_ with I-."

"You've got it wrong," Reid interrupted. "He still works with Itex. He lied to you. He's just trying to earn your trust so that he can put away with you forever. That's why he came up with those plans. Jeb is the one who tried to get you out. But Dr. Lyons lied to him, too and he fell for it like the fool he is. We're trying to save you all."

"So let me get this straight, Dr. Lyons is a liar and was really trying to get rid of us like the rest of Itex? You're saying that him saving me is a lie, him helping me is a lie, him finding a vaccine for my expiration date is a lie? It's all a lie?"

The man nodded. "He doesn't have a vaccine. What he was working on was a death potion." He came up to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder. I wished I could bite it or something. "I have the vaccine, Maximum Ride. I can save you. All you need to do is trust me."

"What about the Erasers? And Ari? What's up with that?"

"We saved the Erasers," the man said. "We found a vaccine for them, too and we saved them. And we tried to get them to get you but you got away. And that wasn't really Ari. Just an Eraser who looked like him. We needed someone to get you here and that was our plan but you fought that too so the only way to get you to cooperate with us was to have him kidnap you and strap you to this table. You're a tough player, Maximum. But now you need to trust me. I will save you, your Flock, Ella, your dog and you're parents. All you need to do is trust me."

I opened my mouth to say no but what came out was a yes. I agreed. Why did I agree? I searched for a reason not to believe him but they all seemed to disappear. Something strange was going on but I couldn't figure out what that was. I couldn't find any reasons to be mad at this guy which was a hard task for me. But for some reason, all of my doubts in this plan just like…melted. And in the back of my mind I heard the faintest sound of a laugh. An evil laugh.

_Gotchya. _


	24. That's My Girl

**Next Chapter! Quicker update than the last. Sorry about that, guys. Enjoy and tell me whatchya think!- burnoutbright**

Have you ever been, like, forced into believing someone? Not like the whole "believe me or die" (well yeah, that's kinda part of it) but also the whole you hear someone in your head forcing you to go with it? No? Is that just me? Thought so. I needed to make sure so that I make a note to write it in my "I'm Going Crazy" date book.

So there I was, in a disgustingly clean hospital like room, sitting on one of those bench thingies getting my blood pressure taken by those annoying pump things. How great is that? I go from a nice, seemingly secure (so I thought…or think) home with almost no needles to an antiseptic party room. And the worst part? I still didn't know where any of my friends or family was. And I didn't know where Dr. Lyons was or what the heck was going on. I didn't know who to trust. This dude or the other dude. And this dude said that the other dude tricked Jeb and everyone else. But he said he told them…so if I just found my family and Flock then they'd know the truth, right?

"Your blood pressure is just as it should be," Dr. Athens said. "Your heart rate is in check and you seem perfectly healthy. How's your hip doing?"

"Fine," I replied. I sighed. "So, can you give me any more info here or am I at my limit?"

The doctor crossed his arms on his chest. "Well, what would you like to know?"

He seemed perfectly at peace. Like he had nothing to hide and nothing to bother him. Either this guy was an amazingly good liar or he was telling the truth. I wasn't gonna make up my mind and give him the benefit of the doubt. Not just yet. I need more information before I take chances.

"Where's my family?" I snapped.

"Here," he replied. "They're upstairs in the house. You're in a basement right now which is basically the lab and the hospital." I was just about to ask more questions but he kept talking. "I work for myself. I'm not a part of some big company and I'm positively not with Itex. Right now you are in Camarillo, California. It's in the south, not the north. We came here by private jet. Right now I'm just making sure you're healthy enough to have the vaccine tested on. I'll only be testing you because you're the leader and if you do get sick, it won't be lethal by the way, none of the others will. And I'm not trying to kill you off. If I was, you'd probably be dead right now, Maximum. You were out for quite some time."

I just sat there, gaping at the man before me. I had no other questions. That bugged me. I was really looking forward to interrogating this guy. He takes all the fun out of my job. Man, everyone's just been killing me slowly and slowly over the past month or so. First Fang, then…Fang, then Fang again (I'm seeing a pattern), then Dr. Possibly Traitor, now this random dude. And why haven't I ever heard of him before? Where'd he come from? Yeah, Lyons was the Voice but what was this guy?

"So can I go see my friends now? You know, talk everything out and make sure everyone knows what's going on?"

Dr. Athens walked over and opened the door. "Go right ahead."

I was very suspicious with how nice this guy was; wondering if it was all just a trap or if he was really trying to convince me that he was the good guy. I sighed. I couldn't trust anyone, could I? I couldn't get a straight answer from anyone. Jeb and my mom were probably in the same boat I was. The only way to really tell if he was telling the truth was with…Angel.

I bolted up the stairs and up into the living room of Dr. Reid Athens's actual house. I was shocked to see it empty. I suspected everyone to be here waiting for me or something. Not trying to be like, self absorbed or anything, but usually my Flock waits around for me when I turn up missing or unconscious for long periods of time. It's happened often enough for me to know this. But this time everyone was in their own rooms doing whatever.

I knocked on the first door I came across only to find it occupied by my sleeping mother. If I knew my Flock well enough, my mom would have one room, Jeb would have another, Angel and Nudge would share one, Iggy and Gazzy would share one and Fang would have his own. I heard laughs coming from two of the rooms on the left so I decided to knock on the one at the very end of the hall on the right. Funnily enough, it was the most secluded room in the house. It was the farthest away from all the others and the light was off.

I knocked. About ten seconds later the door slowly opened and a dark figure stood in the entryway. He was tall and blended in with the shadows behind him. I smiled. I knew him well. A tiny smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"You feeling better, Ace?" I nodded as he let me in, turned on the light and shut the door. We sat down on Fang's bed as he closed his laptop and put it on the desk next to us. "So what's on your mind?"

It took all of my strength not to shriek out in utter confusion and frustration. "I don't get it," I finally said. Fang nodded in understanding. "I don't know who to trust. I don't know which direction to go in. And I know I'm supposed to be the leader and take chances but I've never been in this situation. I've always been able to tell my enemies from my friends but this guy is too…nice to be someone who's trying to kill me."

The two of us stayed quiet for a long while. "Has Angel picked up on anything evil or out of the ordinary?" I finally asked.

To my surprise he shook his head. My heart almost stopped. "Nothing. When we first got here like a day ago I asked her if she could sense him plotting and she said no. I mean, she can read his mind, but his mind is only thinking about ways to help us and ways to get rid of 'the evil Dr. Lyons'. So as far as I know, he's on our side and we were tricked by your Kansas friend."

I thought for a moment. "So you're saying I should trust this guy?"

Fang shrugged. "I say go for it. But if you sense anything, I'll be right there behind you just in case anything happens."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"I think you need to get this off of your mind for a while," Fang said. I raised an eyebrow and he scooted closer to me. "We haven't had time for just…us."

I felt my nerves tense up and my mind raced. Fang slowly came closer and closer. We were finally so close that I could feel his breath on my lips and I could clearly see the gleam in his eyes underneath his hair. My heart raced faster and faster with each second and I found myself moving closer to him. Closer until finally our lips touched.

My mind left me and I felt like I was in pure bliss. I began to realize I was really starting to miss moments like these. I know, you're probably wondering what happened to me and my girly nature. Well, I fell in love. Kill me.

We broke apart to the sound of a knock on the door. Fang got up and answered it. It was Jeb. Fang glanced to me as if asking if I wanted him here or not. I never wanted Jeb here but after that long talk with my mom, I decided to cut the guy a little bit of slack for a while. But if he tried anything funny, he'd be dead quicker than a fly in one of those zapping swatter things. Jeb came in after a nod from me and sat in the chair by the desk. Fang sat next to me on the bed.

"So…," he began. I raised an eyebrow. "We need to try and work something out." Well no kidding, Sherlock. What was your first clue? "Are you willing to take some chances here, Max?" I nodded. I figured that Jeb wasn't entirely on the "Dr. Lyons is really evil" ship yet. Which was good because I don't think anyone else really was either. "We need to find a way to make this guy crack."

"So are you saying that Dr. Athens really is evil?" I questioned.

"Well…not entirely. I mean, we need to find a way to put him under pressure. If he's hiding anything then he'll spill." I nodded, liking where this was going. "But I'm going to need a lot of cooperation." Jeb looked me straight in the eye.

"What?" I shot back. "I'll do it."

"With _no_ walking out or going your own way and absolutely _no_ storming off when things don't go how you want them to. I need to not to work as the leader right now but as a part of this group. Alright?"

I shrugged. "Yup."

"Max…," Jeb sighed. "I'm really serious about this. I can't have you taking charge right now. I really can't. And I know you hate me after all I've put you guys through, I know. But you really need to listen to me. You've been doing a good job of it up until now but _now_ I need your absolute, 150 percent concentration and cooperation. You. Have. To. Obey. Do I make myself clear, Maximum?"

I sat stiff for a moment. Jeb was never ever stern with me. He always just laid down what he needed to say in a 'take it or leave it' manner—which I always left—but this time he was really serious. Like in a fatherly type of way. Not like if I mess up I'm grounded but as in 'I can't lose you, you're my daughter' type of way. I took in a sharp breath and nodded. In some ways Jeb's leadership voice scared me. It's kind of like a punch in the face. Here's this lay down low guy who is usually always calm and he's using his mean voice. Then, just out of the blue, Jeb smiled.

"That's my girl," he said softly. He placed a soft, fatherly kiss on my forehead and walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. _That's my girl…_


	25. The Escape

It's only a matter of time before one becomes ill. Very ill. The type of sickness that only flying and fresh air can cure. Yes, my friends, yours truly came down with a case of cabin fever. We'd been stuck in this dipwad's house for one week and none of us were allowed to leave. Not even Jeb. It's like we were under house arrest or something. But through our boredom we began to wreak havoc around Dr. Athens's mini mansion.

Come on—6 bird kids plus 1 not-so-evil-anymore Whitecoat plus 1 evil plan to destroy an evil murderous scientist equals fun for us, anger and complete annoyance for Dr. Dipstick. Yep. That was Jeb's master plan. For us to annoy the heck out of our lovely host while he does the snitch work. Frankly, I love doing the snitch work but, hey, annoying people I hate is what brings me joy in the morning. It's my reason for living. I found my calling. I wonder if I could get paid for it.

So far we've done a pretty good deal of damage. Iggy and Gazzy "accidently" dropped fireworks into the upstairs toiled and exploded it. Comic reaction by your evil one. Nudge crashed the dude's computer (not before backing up all important info onto a disk). Angel called wild animals to destroy his back yard (yes, her wacko communications now go beyond just SeaWorld). Fang has broken quite a few lamps, frames, mirrors, windows and just about any fragile item he could find. But I think I did the worst. To thank Dr. Athens for all of the stuff he's put up with for us, I made him a very special thank you dinner. Yup, I cooked. And my cooking can make anyone go anorexic. It's beautiful.

We've also just annoyed the crud out of this guy. Motor-mouth Nudge talks his ear off, Fang goes all invisible and freaks the guy out, Iggy pretends that his blindness actually gets in the way of him like, walking and stuff causing him to keep running into him, Angel plays mind tricks on the poor guy, Gazzy does his specialty and I pretty much just sit around and trash talk him. So our little friend is getting quite annoyed and spends most of his time cleaning, chasing us, yelling and driving away to get a break. Until now.

After the latest dose of blowing up a wall and almost killing Dr. Evil's stupid pet cat, the guy sat us all down in the living room. I eyed everyone in the flock with my silent U&A message if anything got out of hand. The man paced back and forth in front of us with his hands behind his back, eyes locked to the floor. Finally, he sighed and stopped and looked at us. His eyes stopped when he got to me and he glared.

"Maximum Ride," he began. "I gave you chance. I gave you an opportunity to continue living. I opened up my home to you and your friends." He paused and let out a huge sigh. "How do you repay me?"

"With gratitude, I assure you," I said smiling.

The man glared. "No!" I sank in my seat slightly and Fang nudged my arm. "With destruction, disruption, disrespect, disaster and-"

"Dysfunction?"

"…yes. That too." Dr. Athens straightened his stance and kept his glare locked with my "innocent" eyes. My heart raced up with my mind as I hoped and prayed that this guy would kick us out or something. Jeb had said that he came up with a vaccine and had enough for each one of us. All he needed to do was get it put away and stored. I figured that was what he was doing now. "You've left me with no choice…"

_This is it_, I thought.

"I have decided to keep you under complete surveillance." My heart dropped. I could hear Nudge gasp and the slight angry groan from Iggy. He was keeping us here? "I've set up cameras in each room to watch your every move, your every plot, your every action. They will be activated after this conversation."

"Every room?" Gazzy asked, intrigued. "Even the bathroom? So you'll like, watch us shower? I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

Angel giggled and Dr. Athens shot the two a death glare. Instantly the two shut up and stared at the man.

"Anyway, you'd better be cooperative with me. I'm your only hope at surviving. Remember that. Dismissed."

Everyone started shuffling out of the living room when the doctor placed a hand on my shoulder. I spun around and looked into the man's eyes. He looked angry, frustrated…evil. I clenched my fists by my side and waited.

"If you make one false move, one slip up, give me any reason not to trust you, you are going to be dead faster than this stupid mutation can kill you, Maximum. And believe me, you don't want to leave your Flock. They'll suffer a much worse fate than you could even imagine. You can't get rid of me that easily."

I stood and said nothing as the doctor turned around and went out of the house. I looked around the room. I couldn't see any cameras here so I'd have to be extra cautious. I went out the room and to the stairs and almost ran into Jeb on the way up. I opened my mouth to speak but Jeb nodded.

"I know. I heard."

"What are we going to do?" I whispered. "He's watching our every move."

Jeb took in a deep breath and let it out slow. Carefully he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid followed by six needles in a back.

"They're sterilized," he began. "It's the vaccine. I need you to get the Flock out of here, Max. Leave tonight after Dr. Athens has gone to sleep. Make sure he's asleep. But be careful. If you open a window or door an alarm will go off. I need you to get to safety."

"How are we supposed to get out, then?"

"Listen, Max. I said if you _open_ a window or door an alarm will go off. Use your brain. Don't panic, don't stall. Get out. I'll stay here and try to get away some other time. But you need to leave tonight." Jeb handed me the vaccines. "Got it?" I nodded. "I love you."

I looked up to Jeb and blinked. It had been years since I heard him tell me that. Two years. Suddenly I felt like a little kid again, looking up to Jeb with swelling eyes and an open heart. _I love you_. I smiled and hugged Jeb as tightly as I could. For a moment he just stood there, probably shocked but hugged me back. I was taking a chance. Believing him. Trusting him. I hoped I wasn't making the stupidest mistake of my life. Before I could start getting any more emotional I let go and ran upstairs and into Fang's bedroom to tell him and the Flock the plan.

--

Night came in no time. There were three quiet taps on my door and I opened it to find Iggy.

"He's sound asleep," he informed us.

I nodded. "Good. Fang, start working on that window."

Fang nodded and pulled out a knife and carefully started cutting the sealing between the wall and the window. I gathered everyone together and straightened out Angel's windbreaker. I took the medicine and shots off of my bed and wrapped them in a pillow case before carefully placing them into my backpack. That's when I noticed it. Up in the corner of my bedroom. A little black camera about the size of a tack.

I zipped up the pack and stood on a chair and grabbed the camera. I ripped the wires out and through the device on the floor just as Fang carried the window and set it on my bed. A gentle breeze blew in from outside and made me shiver. This was it. We were getting out of here. I checked the time. It was ten thirty. I sucked in a breath and glanced at the Flock.

"Ready guys?" Nods were exchanged. "Up and Away," I whispered. I waited before everyone was out the window and in the air before I put on the backpack and jumped into the night sky. I felt my wings snap out and gently start to carry me through the sky. I missed flying. I quickly caught up with the others and went beside Fang who was starting to get a little wobbly.

"You're not getting sick, are you?" Fang shook his head and stared ahead of him. His dark eyes closed for a moment and reopened. He breathed in and out heavily and dropped about a foot. Gazzy looked towards me, concerned. "It's okay," I told him. "He's just tired." I glanced below and stole a look at Fang's neck. My stomach sank. We didn't have much time.

* * *

**PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! Yes, it's been a long time but I've kind of had writer's block. The kind that lasts 3 months. **


	26. Die A Different Day

With tired bodies and nervous hearts, we all managed to land safely in a small cave on the beach on the coast of California. It was early morning and we were all overly exhausted. Especially Fang, which was expected. We stacked fists and I put Nudge, Gazzy and Angel to bed. Iggy lied down next to the Gasman and fell asleep almost instantly. I looked out to the ocean to see Fang slouching his back towards us with his head in his hands. I grabbed the backpack and made my way towards him.

"It's there, isn't it?" he asked quietly. I sighed and sat next to him, putting the pack in front of me. I nodded. He couldn't see but he knew. Fang started to breathe in heavily yet calmly. I watched him. One quick jumped from his chest and I alerted my senses. My concern turned to absolute pity as I saw the sand underneath his hidden face slowly became wet.

Mr. Rock…crying. We've been friends our whole lives and now our times were coming. Mine was extended but in knew I only had about a week left. That's probably about how long Fang had right about now. And for all of the long years I've known Fang I have never, ever, ever seen him cry. I stretched out an arm and rubbed his back. I felt his body jump from choking on confusing emotion.

With his head turned from me, Fang wiped his eyes with his arm and sat up a little. He sighed and looked out to the ocean. A faint pink line could be seen on the horizon. I reached ahead of me and opened the backpack and pulled out the pillowcase. I pulled out two shots and the bottle of medicine. I filled them both with 10 milliliters of fluid, setting one back down on the cloth. I turned my whole body to face Fang. And held up the vaccine.

"You ready to last?" I asked softly. Fang stared at the needle intently. He just stared silently for about a minute. Then he looked me in the eyes. Slowly Fang nodded. I leveled the needle to his arm. I'd never done this before but I'd seen a lot of other people do it. Fang watched as I slowly stuck the needle into his skin. I could see the fear on his face. We hated needles. We hated anything that had to do with hospitals. But this needed to be done and we both knew it.

I slowly pushed the back of the shot until all of the fluid was injected. I pulled the needle out and wiped the blood off of his arm with my sweatshirt. I knew this wasn't very sterile or anything but it was the best we could do. I dug in the front pocked of the pack and pulled out a band-aid and put it over the injection site.

Fang picked up the other readied needle and put it to my arm. I turned my gaze to Fang's eyes but shut mine right as he stabbed my arm and injected the fluid. Soon my arm was cleaned and bandaged. I took the shots and buried them into the sand and put the vaccine and needles back into the backpack. Fang played with his band-aid and then looked at me.

"We're going to live, Maximum," he said so softly. I smiled and nodded. We were. We weren't going to die. Not today, not anytime soon. And it was all thanks to Jeb. My father. The one who saved us to begin with. Fang leaned in slowly and kissed my lips softly. I slid my lips against his and his arms came to wrap around my waist. The last thing I remembered was lying next to Fang and falling asleep to the sight of his eyes watching me ever so carefully.

And for the first time in my life I felt safe. I felt secure. I felt at peace and at rest. All of my troubles seemed to drift away that night. I knew that I didn't have to worry about being separated from my Flock by a stupid death date some wacko decided to create for us. I'd die on my time. And, believe me, that wasn't going to be anytime soon.

* * *

**FINI! 26 chapters later. Woohoo. Yes, it's kind of a cliffe. What happens to Jeb? What happens to Dr. Lyons? What about Dr. Athens?...Dr. Martinez and Ella?...the rest of the **_**world**_**? Well…I'm not sure yet. That's what sequels are for. But as of now—rock on.**

**-burnoutbright **


	27. HA! You thought I was done

Okay, okay, okay. I know that the story is over and done with (until the sequel haha) and blah, blah, yada. BUT I'm back to put in my two cents. Because my two cents matter. SO:

1. Thank you all for being such dedicated readers and reviewers. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!!!!

2. THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL! Soon. Chapter one is done. I'll put it up in…eh…about a week. I'm leaving to a land with no internet access so that'll kinda be hard for me to update. Title? No clue. Plot: It'll be the final story (in my intelligent masterminding creativeness…which doesn't say much…) in the MR world. Yes, the battle has come. The final facing of Itex. You will hear more about what happens to the other people who I just plainly didn't do much with in the end. E.G.: Athens, Lyons, Jeb (dur), Fang's mother, etc. It's gonna be epic, you just wait.

3. I was looking at the little PM thing and it said: here are your PMs. If you got it, rock on. If not…look again. If you still don't get it, tough toenails.

4**. I AM GIVING STEPHANIEZORANDER THE REVIEWER OF THE YEAR AWARD!** I'm not authorized to do so, but if there was such an award, you deserve it.

Rock on-

burnoutbright


	28. Clear up on ch7 typo

**A/N: LAST ONE I PROMISE!!!! Okay, so here's the deal. Recently I've been getting a bajillion reviews and pms about my little typo in chapter 7. I said "human and human-lupine hybrids" and I meant to say "human-avian and human-lupine hybrids". Juuussst clearing that up. I will change it in the story. **

**No harm, no foul. –burnoutbright**


End file.
